THE SWEET SPOT

In Amy Poeppel's thoroughly modern comedy, three women form an accidental sorority when a baby, belonging to exactly none of them, lands on their collective "doorstep."

Lauren and her family have recently moved into the well-worn Greenwich Village brownstone that once belonged to her late mother-in-law, a famed feminist icon. The house is a veritable time capsule, with its dizzyingly unattractive 70s wallpaper and beaded curtains in every doorway. Adding to the bohemian, grungy splendor is the bar occupying the basement of the house, a mostly beloved, often noisy neighborhood dive called The Sweet Spot.

Within days of moving to the Village, Lauren discovers that she has ruined the life of a woman she has never met by inadvertently sparking her divorce. After thirty years of what seemed close enough to marital bliss, Melinda's ex-husband Russell is now living with a celebrity entrepreneur named Brooke, with whom he's recently had a baby, which is downright confounding given his age and innate dislike of children. When Melinda explodes in Brooke's trendy Soho boutique, Olivia - the industrious twenty-something behind the counter, who has big dreams and bigger debt - gets caught in the crossfire and loses her job.

Olivia hates Melinda, Melinda despises Lauren, and Lauren wants to broker some kind of peace before Melinda's revenge tactics - from trying to frame Lauren with an invented lover to sending a stripper to Lauren's husband in the middle of a faculty meeting - cause any lasting damage. When Brooke flies to the west coast and Russell takes off after her, leaving their squalling baby behind with Melinda, the women call a truce. They band together to change dirty diapers, track down the wayward parents, and hatch new plans for work, romance, mischief, and non-70s decor.

Amy Poeppel is the award-winning author of the novels The Sweet Spot, Musical Chairs, Limelight, and Small Admissions. She and her husband have three sons and split their time between New York City, Germany, and Connecticut.