The Nest Builder: A Novel

Stefan Byrd is sailing home to America on the Lusitania, and he finds the passengers unbearable. Crowded among people who speak in cliches and move through the world without any grasp of beauty, the young painter nursed on Paris returns to a country he barely knows, carrying a Michigan childhood marked by unhappiness and a restless artistic soul that seems to fit nowhere. As the ship cuts through the Irish Sea, Stefan drifts into an unexpected connection with Mary Elliston, a fellow passenger whose presence offers something like recognition, something like possibility. But can beauty and intellect survive the collision with everything Stefan is returning to? Written in 1916, this novel captures a particular moment when the old world of European artistry and the new world of American ambition were locked in a tense negotiation, and when a sensitive man could feel alien in both. It is a period piece to be sure, but one that resonates with anyone who has ever felt they belonged to no single place.