Excerpt from Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

Once she was gone he went into the bedroom. Claire was propped up against the headboard and talking on the phone. In the six months since he moved to the guest room, afraid of disturbing her sleep, what had felt equally owned had become entirely hers. Clothing, books, magazines, her water bottles, pills, photographs recently pulled from albums to keep at hand. Moisturizer, a heating pad, a small notebook and pen. It was her den. Eventually he moved his bathroom stuff to the guest bath, ceding the entire space.

"Michelle," she mouthed, pointing at the phone, and he retreated.


Abby visited on the weekend, leaving the grandchildren home with Isaac. The kids couldn't do the round-trip from Virginia in two days, it would be hell for everyone. Nor could Abby wait; she too was very much a milestones person and needed to see Claire right away. At one point Eliot entered the TV room and found Abby with her head on Claire's lap, Claire stroking her hair. It could have been twenty years earlier, Abby a heartbroken middle schooler. It was almost too much for him, thinking about the passage of time. He couldn't go into it, the past, all those feelings; he couldn't or he might never come back.

"Dad," Abby said that evening, once Claire was asleep. "You need to reach out. You need support too."

"I've been taking care of your mother for a long time. I'll be OK."

"Emotional support."

"I knew what you meant."

Abby was on the window seat and got up, antsy, crossing the room to lean against a wall and moments later crossing it again to pick up an abandoned mug. Her hair was short these days, severe to Eliot's eye, though it made sense given her busy life. She said, "I should've tried harder to get you guys to move." Her voice had the tight, desperate quality that frustration had triggered in her during childhood. Frustration born of ambition, Claire always used to say, reminding Eliot that Abby was a lot like him. If you substituted a group of headstrong little girls for a group of business executives, Abby was no less determined than Eliot to impose her will.

"You honestly think that would've helped?" Eliot said. "Trying harder?"

Claire's first metastases, found in her lungs three years earlier, had caused a great reckoning in the family. Within a year Eliot retired, and Abby launched a campaign to relocate her parents. Eliot was agnostic on the subject, saw pros and cons, but there was no missing how much Claire wanted to make the move, to be close to Abby and the grandchildren. Nor was there any missing how adamant she was that they couldn't, wouldn't do it. Abby was a pediatrician, spending hours every day taking care of other people's children before spending hours taking care of her own. Claire was terrified of being a burden.

"Dad, come on," Abby said now. "All I'm saying is I wish you were closer."

"And all I'm saying is don't blame yourself that we're not."

"You're suggesting I'm not all-powerful?" she said, fighting a smile. "I have children, I think I know that by now."

"Fair enough," Eliot said. Then: "I'm glad you're here, sweetheart."

In the morning they Zoomed with Josh. It was still the dead of winter in Chicago, and he wore a beanie and two sweaters, his house old and very drafty. He said, "Mom, do you feel like getting a massage? Can I gift you a massage?"

Claire glanced at Eliot; Josh barely made ends meet. She said, "You're sweet. You having that thought is all the gift I need."

An hour later it was time for Abby to go. She clung tightly to Claire and said, "I can come back anytime. Literally anytime, this is exactly why I'm in such a big practice. Wait, do you have a fever?" She reached into her bag and pulled out a forehead thermometer.

"Always prepared," Claire said—amiably enough, but it made Eliot remember earlier moments when Abby's professional identity bumped up against her identity as a daughter. Soon after Claire's diagnosis, medical-student Abby insisted that Claire meet with her mentor, an academic oncologist she'd gotten to know during a summer research project. Claire and Eliot made a special trip to Boston ... only to have this doctor give them the exact same recommendation they'd received at home. Since then, Abby had kept any doubts to herself.

Excerpted from Some Bright Nowhere by Ann Packer. Copyright © 2026 by Ann Packer. Excerpted by permission of Harper. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.