People came to Cape Harrier, at the end of a two-lane on Florida's swamp coast, to escape society. Now society is ravaged by ecological crisis and unnamed disease. The few survivors must pull themselves together and keep living. The Cape is benign enough. But are the survivors strong enough?
Jaydie is competent - but distracted, unreachable. Her young daughter Sylvia has been rendered mute by all the trauma. Elderly Miss Audrey fades in and out. Julian - the narrator - luxuriates in the new solitude, but still seethes at his lover Richard, who ran away. The fragile balance is shaken when Julian and Jaydie become sexually involved - and lost friends suddenly turn up.
Part prediction, part parable, Caught in a Still Place affirms possibility, even after breathtaking disaster. "Lerner breaks the mold," says Booklist. "Candid, understated, self-effacing, funny, as stripped down as the empty world."
