Claire and Eliot have been happily married for nearly four decades. They live in a quiet town in Connecticut and take idyllic-sounding holidays in Maine. When she was diagnosed with cancer eight years ago, he retired to care for her. And yet, as Some Bright Nowhere begins and Claire decides with her oncologist that further treatment is futile, instead of seeking the solace of her seemingly devoted husband, she asks him to leave. She wants to be cared for by her friends Holly and Michelle.
Ann Packer has said that her latest novel was inspired by a true story: “It blew my mind that you could just expel your spouse because they weren’t exactly right for the job, whatever that was going to be.”
Claire’s decision seems to have been influenced by the example of a friend, Susan, who, when she was told she had only months to live, was cared for by her sisters, daughters and friends — including Claire. Claire explains to her husband: “It’s wanting A . . . rather than not wanting B.”
