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

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And then it was over, the final visit to Claire's oncologist. Eliot rose and shook the doctor's hand. Claire inched forward on her chair, grimacing a little as she mustered the strength to stand. Always petite, she had become tiny, her weight down to a distressing ninety pounds. Her hair was about an inch long and clung to her scalp in tight curls.
Dr. Steiner waited until she was steady, then took her hands in his. He said, "It's been a privilege treating you, Claire."

Eliot watched as Claire pursed her lips: preamble to a small witticism. She said, "It's been a privilege being treated by you, Dr. Mark Steiner."

Steiner squeezed Claire's hands and then took a step backward and held out his arm. He wanted them to leave ahead of him, a first.

The corridor was busy and Claire stayed near the wall, pausing every now and then to catch her breath. She needed the bathroom, and Eliot stationed himself opposite a photograph of a mountaintop at dawn that he'd walked past a thousand times and somehow never noticed.

In the car she gave him a long look. "Are you OK?"

Eliot wasn't really a milestones person, but she was—the anniversary of their first kiss, the packing of the final school lunch, the first Christmas without her mother—and sometimes she yearned to have him make a big deal over things. Today of all days he wanted to get it right. But making the cessation of treatment official with Steiner was far less emotional to Eliot than any number of other moments during the long and agonizing journey to this bleak juncture. There was a night in January when she was a few days out from her next treatment, deep in an Ambien-induced sleep because even after so many years she still got anxious before chemo, and Eliot sat in front of a basketball game and leaked tears, his whole face flowing though he didn't cry, didn't sob. They had still been under such pressure then.

"I am," he said. "What about you?"

She gave him a thoughtful look. "You know what I was just thinking? If he finally buys that cabin I won't get to hear about it."

She meant Steiner. He'd been renting in Maine for years, two weeks every August, and had told Eliot and Claire many times that he was thinking of making an offer on the place. His rental was twenty miles from the house where Eliot and Claire always stayed, close to the lobster rolls they liked best, the small, pebbled beach. Spending time in Maine was Eliot and Claire's favorite summer pastime and had been since shortly after they were married, when they joined friends for a long weekend south of Portland. After that they rented their own place each summer, at first for just a week but increasing to two once they had kids and three once their work schedules allowed for longer vacations. Packing up to leave at the end of the previous summer, they both knew it might be Claire's last visit to Maine, but the chemo was still working and they didn't talk about the possibility that she might not return. She was a milestones person, yes, but also someone with a remarkable capacity not to get ahead of herself.

"I guess not," Eliot said.

Claire shrugged lightly. "Among so many other things."

He gave her an understanding smile, a smile he hoped conveyed an opening to say more if she wanted. She tapped the dashboard, ready to go.


At home he helped her into bed and took her empty water bottle to the kitchen so he could refill it with filtered water. When he got back she was burrowed under the covers, her frame as small as a child's. "I really am wiped out today," she murmured, her voice in a register of mild unhappiness.

He kissed the side of her head. "I can tell. I'm sorry. Get some sleep, OK?"

He closed the door on his way out. There was laundry for him to start, the dishwasher to unload. He longed to be truly busy but couldn't bear to begin any of the more involved tasks that might occupy a few hours. In three to six months he'd have all the time in the world to organize the garage or take up woodworking or go to Vietnam by himself.

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.