The Dive from Clausen's Pier

A suspenseful, richly layered first novel that asks: How much do we owe the people we love?

THE DIVE FROM CLAUSEN'S PIER will speak to all those who have ever thought about leaving when they knew they should stay, anyone who has ever felt trapped, not only by circumstance, but by the strength of their own love, Carrie Bell has lived in Wisconsin all her life. She's had the same best friend, the same good relationship with her mother, the same boyfriend, for as long as anyone can remember. But when her fiance, Mike is paralyzed by a tragic accident, Carrie has to question everything she thought she knew about herself and about the meaning of home.

Ann Packer has written a morally complex, deeply satisfying novel about the desire to live fully and the conflict between who we want to be to others and who we must be for ourselves. A magnificent debut from a remarkable new talent.

Ann Packer's stories have appeared in The New Yorker, Ploughshares, Threepenny Review, Missouri Review, and other literary magazines, as well as in Prize Stories 1992: The O. Henry Awards. She is the author of Mendocino and Other Stories, published by Chronicle Books (1994). She lives in Northern California with her husband and two children.