Elaine Netherlands is taking charge of her life-with zest. Divorced, independent, on the brink of a new career, she feels exhilarated by possibility. Then her nineteen-year-old step-daughter, Nola, shows up at her door after three years of silence. Nola needs money-a loan so that her rock group, Second Hand, can get to California. And Elaine wants to give it, wants to say, "Go for it, girl, you can do it." But wouldn't this mean another confrontation with her former husband, Larry Netherlands, the fashionable New York photographer of beautiful women? Should she side with Nola? Elaine makes a wrong turn as she drives from Manhattan to Connecticut. Finding herself lost in the woods in the middle of her life's journey, she does what any self-respecting late-twentieth century person would do-she gets to a clearing and takes an option on one of the town houses being built there. And it is then that she meets Mario Picard, a contractor with a French-Canadian crew, and her wrong turn leads her to a change of luck. So begins Julia Markus's latest novel, a comedy of the spirit, which blazes a path through the density of our times. In its pages, Elaine contends with professional reversals, real estate, love, sex, co-dependency, and loss, and emerges tested but triumphant. With humor, wit, and intelligence, A Change of Luck looks squarely at the dark in our society, but finally affirms the power of hope.