Someplace Else

The novel Someplace Else scrutinizes spaces begging for examination—places of asphyxiation, of undiscussed power structures and violence—that do nothing to prepare those living within them to be their examiners. Through the lens of Lumi—a small-town Wisconsin adolescent on the verge of womanhood—the novel examines how childhood innocence is exemplified and threatened by the homes in which females are raised and raising themselves. Someplace Else serves as Lumi's avenue for figuring out how to put to words what exactly it is she is coming to understand, including her relationship with her hometown, how this space has affected her mother and sister, and how this space has affected these women's relationships with one another; through story, Lumi is deciphering ways to speak, to talk about her world and perhaps find a way out.