Right after the weather, by Carol Anshaw

Cate, at 42, hasn’t exactly risen up in life as her demanding mother and mostly-absent father, divorced for years, would have preferred.  She’s cultivating a new relationship with Maureen, hoping perhaps to have found a life-long companion, but can’t let go of her attraction to Dana, whose partner Jody is unaware of their affair.  A set-designer by trade, she is working on sets for a Chicago play she dislikes and feels will fail, while coping with the reappearance of her former husband, Graham, in her spare room.  He’s between marriages, and since he bought the apartment for her, she can hardly say no.  It’s just after Trump’s election and Graham has fallen deep into conspiracy theories.  He has brought his dog, Sailor, with him.  In many ways, Sailor is the most completely likable character in the book.  Neale, her childhood friend, lives nearby with her twelve-year-old son, Joe, in a sketchy neighborhood.  When Neale is attacked in her kitchen by vagrants, Cate inadvertently is her savior, but the event will color their long-time relationship and completely upend Cate’s life.  Deftly written, with an ambiguous ending.  270 pp.