Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. Ideally, a marriage lasts a long time,

but just because a relationship goes the distance, it doesn't mean things get easier. In a bit,

Craig Thomas co-creator of the sitcom How I Venture Mother on his new novel, which does closely resemble his

own life. But first, Anne Packer's novel, Some Bright Nowhere, features a long marriage that is

coming towards its end because someone is dying. But she's got to ask, and it's a big one.

Packer talks at NPR's Louise Kelly. After the break.

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The new novel, Some Brate Nowhere, focuses tightly on a long, mostly happily married couple.

Elliot and Claire have raised two children, built two careers.

By the time we meet them, Claire is very sick.

The book opens with her final visit to her oncologist

and with her making a brutal request of her husband. Anne Packer is the author. She's with us

now from New York. Diane. Hi. Describe the request. So Elliot's been taking care of Claire

since her diagnosis, eight years before the book starts,

and she says that she would like her closest women friends to be in the house with her taking

care of her during her final days and weeks and for Elliot to move out.

This struck me as so incredibly cruel. Is it? Is that the way you meant?

I didn't mean it as cruel. No, I meant it as a reflection of her deep feelings in a very scary

and sad moment in her life. And in fact, when she makes the request,

...