Desperate Acts

Nan Fletcher is an abused wife whose scars are all hidden because they're emotional. She appears to have it all--a great house, a successful professor husband, Jake, and her beautiful teenage son, Jamie--but with Jake's constant demand for perfection, she finds that she has lost her sense of self. She only feels alive when she finds a few moments to write poems and short stories, which her husband belittles. Nan and Jamie finally get a break from overbearing Jake when they end up going on vacation to a dude ranch without him. Ranch owner Ben is the antithesis of Jake--sensitive, kind, and appreciative of all that Nan has to offer--and he and the beauty of the West show Nan that there are alternatives to her life. The two fall in love, but will Nan have the strength to act on it?

Coleman has written a striking and empowering portrait of one woman's struggle against an insidious form of abuse.