Delicate Relations

About the Book

Told from a grown-up perspective, Delicate Relations gives a penetrating portrait of adulthood profoundly scarred by childhood. Due to the unknown origin of four women, sisters, having the same mother but a different biological father who deserted them at very early ages, Renee Ramzey, in the aftermath of a family tragedy, secretly searches for these shadowy, abstracted fathers, obsessively delving into a startling, introspective journey deep in each man's complexly fragile, flawed and at times dangerous world. The dual story line becomes Renee's callously splintered behavior and unexpected divergence from her own personal life, forfeited with seemingly reckless abandon and a manic energy that is not without its own fatalities.

The heart of this gripping, forceful story addresses the wounding damage a man's absence creates in the home: the insecurities rejection nurtures inside little girls, and the lessons it teaches about men, love, sex, marriage and parenting to the women they become. In a perceptively imagined way, its narrative beautifully plots the gray subtleties of self-identity and the power it wields over every human relationship with a fast, edgy, hardnosed pace that is as loving as it is honest about this raw earth.

About the Author

Born and raised in Chicago, Xichel lives in a nearby suburb with her husband, where she wrote her first novel Delicate Relations, but has also written several screenplays currently being marketed. They are expecting their first child this winter.