The Goddess Abides

Edith is forty-three, widowed and living in a large Vermont house after her children have established families of their own. Reading and music provide a quiet independence until two men disturb the balance she has created. Edwin, a philosopher thirty years older, offers disciplined conversation and companionship; Jared, a scientist twenty years younger, awakens an attraction that is physical, emotional and difficult to dismiss as temporary.

The choice is complicated by age, responsibility and Edith's unwillingness to define herself only through another marriage. She must decide whether caution protects genuine freedom or merely disguises fear, while Jared must determine whether desire can survive the unequal stages of their lives. The novel treats mature sexuality and solitude without reducing either man to a simple alternative, making Edith's developing self-knowledge more important than the conventional resolution of a romantic triangle.