The residents of Baxter, Maine, are going nowhere fast-but not for lack of trying. In this artfully written jewel of a novel, award-winning author Jim Nichols strings together the bittersweet stories of people bound together by shared geography and the insular nature of small-town life. There's Johnny Lunden, a well-meaning war veteran with a penchant for the local bar and a deep, but doomed, love for his family; eight-year-old Ted Soule, who shares a first kiss with the Ophelia-like Nadia, the daughter of his Russian neighbors; and Tomi Lambert who watches the confused adults around her struggle to accept their fates. In a wonderfully authentic New England setting, Nichols explores the nature of connection-hoped for, missed, lost, and found. Winner of the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Best Fiction. | Closer All The Time by Jim Nichols, Paperback | Indigo Chapters