Second Chances is an adult romance between Anne and Ted, who have both suffered great losses. They have ended up on Cape Cod, whose nooks and crannies of wildness are their refuge. They are drawn together as Anne searches for someone to care for an injured fox Maggie, Ted’s daughter, gives the story a mythic dimension with her hunger for a mother and her love for the fox. The obvious ‘match’ between Ted and Anne, both needing what the other has, is not so obvious in practice: as they draw together, the anxieties and dreads sparked by their past experiences increasingly get in their way. They are individuals who feel deeply, and their losses have made them acutely aware of the fragility of ordinary family happiness. Despite an ever-increasing involvement, their romance becomes explosive and would fail were it not for Maggie. At the critical turning point in the story the fox leaves Maggie despite all her hunger and desire but, miraculously, returns against all expectation, making everything else seem possible to them, too. They risk the return of other things, then-like love, and being a family.
About the author
Lance Lee is a poet and playwright, and has written in and taught screenwriting. His works have been published and produced in this country and England. He is the recipient of a Creative Writing Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an environmentalist. Second Chances is his first novel.