The middle place

the long version

At 36, Kelly had a good marriage, a couple of kids, and a weekly newspaper column. But she still saw herself as George Corrigan's daughter. A garrulous Irish-American charmer from Baltimore, George was the center of the ebullient, raucous Corrigan clan. Kelly's was a colorful childhood, just the sort a girl could get attached to. She lives deep within what she calls the Middle Place--"that sliver of time when parenthood and childhood overlap"--but she's abruptly shoved into a coming-of-age when she finds a lump in her breast. And so her journey to full-blown adulthood begins. When George, too, learns he has late-stage cancer, it is Kelly's turn to take care of the man who had always taken care of her--and show us a woman as she finally takes the leap and grows up.--From publisher description.