Leesa Cross-Smith has written a new book that will tantalize your senses. Her descriptions of taste, smell, sounds and visuals are so vivid that you may think you are an unseen visitor in the story, rather than a reader of it.
The novel is titled “This Close to Okay.”
She joined “City Lights” host Lois Reitzes via Zoom to discuss her book.
Interview Highlights
How the story begins:
“My character Tallie encounters a man standing on the edge of a bridge as if he’s about to jump. She’s on her way home in her car, so she immediately pulls over and talks to him and tries to get him to come back to the good side of the bridge. She’s a therapist, but she’s not telling him that in case he has an aversion to talk therapy or in case knowing that information would make him shut down. She talks to him on the bridge and eventually convinces him to go for a cup of coffee. She’s doing anything for distraction, anything to keep him from taking his own life. The story starts there … which is pretty wild,” said Cross-Smith.
