We've already gone this far

the long version

"In this stunning debut, Patrick Dacey draws us into the secret lives of recognizable strangers. We meet longtime neighbors and friends when the ground beneath their feet has shifted in ways they don't yet understand. Here, in small-town Massachusetts, after more than a decade of boom and bust, everyone is struggling to find their own version of the American dream: a lonely woman attacks a memorial to a neighbor's veteran son, a dissatisfied housewife goes overboard with cosmetic surgery on national television, a young father walks away from one of the few jobs left in town, a soldier writes home to a mother who is becoming increasingly unhinged. Life's strange intensity and occasional magic is all around." -- jacket.