The Measures Between Us

Book excerpt: Jack is an intern for the university's flood study. Transcribing interviews with people who live along a threatened and threatening river, he listens to their answers to questions about environmental change and their emotional investment in the waterway. Lately, Jack has questions for Cynthia. They've become close, reuniting years after high school, but now she's distancing herself again, sinking into depression. Her parents have noticed, too, calling on the only professional they know: Henry, a psychology professor who was once a student in her father's middle school shop class. Henry wants to help, but he is also dealing with a household in jeopardy: there's a stubborn wedge between him and his pregnant wife. By turns sweeping and intimate, The Measures Between Us is about the shifting covenants we make with ourselves and with the ones we love, about the distances we keep and those we're bent on erasing.