Three people meet in a broken elevator, and their lives change forever.

Fay (Detoured Lives, 2013) takes on the story of three lives intertwined by chance. Harrison, Molly, and Anka meet when an elevator stalls out at a luxury apartment building where hedge fund manager Harrison works, call girl Molly has an appointment, and model Anka has a shoot. A deep bond arises from the hours they spend together, particularly between the two women. After they all escape, Harrison and Anka begin a romance, while Molly deals with the fallout of her longtime affair with a local politician and contends with a tragedy that threatens to break her heart. Molly and Anka remain close, even as drugs pull Anka away from Harrison and his own ego blocks his ability to become intimate with anyone. Though Harrison, Anka, and Molly drift closer together and farther apart as the novel progresses, they never leave one another’s lives. Each has demons to handle, from addiction to manslaughter to a kidnapped child, but they always circle back to meet one another in some way. Fay focuses on what it means to be part of a family and what it means to love, and while there are tragic outcomes in many cases—including the dissolution of more than one marriage and the end of more than one life—she leaves a glimmer of hope at every turn. The book is also deeply sexual, from Molly’s career to Harrison’s erotic exploits. At its core, though, Fay’s novel deals with what happens when lives collide and how imperfect people handle human connection.

Serendipity leads to a touching story of loving and being loved.