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Draw Near to Me
In this highly-anticipated sequel to Swimming with Ghosts, the discovery of a desperately-hidden secret brings a family to the brink of collapse—the exact place where they may ultimately find true healing and forgiveness.
One day before a freak accident lands devoted wife and mother Kristy Weinstein in a coma, her husband, David, discovers a devastating secret she’d been keeping for months. While Kristy’s life hangs in the balance, broken-hearted David, a high-risk OB with a God complex, must grapple with his pride and demons in order to make impossible decisions about his career, wife, and the new baby that has served as a joyful family distraction from the roiling tensions of Kristy’s betrayal. Their college-aged daughter Mia, nicknamed “Scoop,” clashes with her family as she tries to solve the mystery of the events leading up to her mother’s coma, and Patrick, Kristy’s half-brother, fights to hold on to his sobriety and his beloved fiancée while he nearly crumbles under the fear of losing his sister and the responsibility of showing up for Kristy’s family.
With Kristy increasingly unavailable to them, each family member is pushed to find kinship in surprising places and to heal old wounds by drawing near those who have damaged them the most. This is a timely story about the emotional and spiritual work it takes to repair an impossible rupture in a marriage, a relationship, a family, and in turn the larger communities in which we live, hope, and love.
One day before a freak accident lands devoted wife and mother Kristy Weinstein in a coma, her husband, David, discovers a devastating secret she’d been keeping for months. While Kristy’s life hangs in the balance, broken-hearted David, a high-risk OB with a God complex, must grapple with his pride and demons in order to make impossible decisions about his career, wife, and the new baby that has served as a joyful family distraction from the roiling tensions of Kristy’s betrayal. Their college-aged daughter Mia, nicknamed “Scoop,” clashes with her family as she tries to solve the mystery of the events leading up to her mother’s coma, and Patrick, Kristy’s half-brother, fights to hold on to his sobriety and his beloved fiancée while he nearly crumbles under the fear of losing his sister and the responsibility of showing up for Kristy’s family.
With Kristy increasingly unavailable to them, each family member is pushed to find kinship in surprising places and to heal old wounds by drawing near those who have damaged them the most. This is a timely story about the emotional and spiritual work it takes to repair an impossible rupture in a marriage, a relationship, a family, and in turn the larger communities in which we live, hope, and love.
320 pages, Paperback
Published July 7, 2026
About the author
Michelle Brafman
8 books78 followersWriting is not my first gig. I’ve also worked as a coffee barista, radio advertising salesperson, and filmmaker, among other jobs. My resume reads like a ransom note, yet this assortment of life experiences has propelled me toward my big passion, the coaxing and telling of stories.
As a filmmaker, the stories that surfaced after the cameras stopped rolling drove me to write some bad short fiction. I kept writing, though, and eventually earned an MA in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. My short fiction has since won some nice awards, including a special mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and my essays and stories have appeared in Slate, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, the minnesota review, and numerous other publications. I am currently at work on my third book of fiction, a novel titled Status Change.
In addition to my own writing, I help others find and tune their narrative voices. I teach creative writing at The Johns Hopkins MA in Writing Program, the George Washington University, The Washington Center for Psychoanalysis’ New Directions Program, and smaller workshops throughout the Washington, DC area. In 2003, I founded Yeah Write, a writing coaching business.
A Milwaukee,Wisconsin native and University of California, San Diego alum, I still dream about Kopp’s custard and La Jolla Cove swims. I now live just north of the Washington, DC border, in Glen Echo, Maryland, with my husband and two children.
As a filmmaker, the stories that surfaced after the cameras stopped rolling drove me to write some bad short fiction. I kept writing, though, and eventually earned an MA in fiction writing from Johns Hopkins University. My short fiction has since won some nice awards, including a special mention in the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and my essays and stories have appeared in Slate, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Tablet, Lilith Magazine, the minnesota review, and numerous other publications. I am currently at work on my third book of fiction, a novel titled Status Change.
In addition to my own writing, I help others find and tune their narrative voices. I teach creative writing at The Johns Hopkins MA in Writing Program, the George Washington University, The Washington Center for Psychoanalysis’ New Directions Program, and smaller workshops throughout the Washington, DC area. In 2003, I founded Yeah Write, a writing coaching business.
A Milwaukee,Wisconsin native and University of California, San Diego alum, I still dream about Kopp’s custard and La Jolla Cove swims. I now live just north of the Washington, DC border, in Glen Echo, Maryland, with my husband and two children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 5, 2026
The sequel to her 2023 novel Swimming With Ghosts, Michelle Brafman’s Draw Near to Me picks up not long after the climactic events of its action-packed and emotionally affecting predecessor — a highly destructive derecho in June 2012. At the close of Ghosts, that sudden storm had left a path of physical and emotional devastation in the lives of a pair of half-sisters and their families. Kristy Weinstein and Gillian Cloud were best friends who were queens of their suburban swim club before learning they shared a biological dad. By the end of the book, their relationship has been frayed by a betrayal that sets the stage for Draw Near to Me.
In the sequel, Brafman again centers suburban mom Kristy. At the start of the second novel, Kristy has had a third child at age 48 — one whose uncertain paternity is a linchpin of the plot. When Kristy suffers a freak accident that lands her in a coma, the family faces a prolonged crisis that leaves none of them unscathed. Secrets are revealed, but more often than not their unraveling imbues characters with greater empathy for one another. Old resentments thaw as characters see their pasts through new eyes. That pattern of repair suffuses the story with hope for healing of even the most painful ruptures of family members’ trust.
Draw Near to Me unspools as a succession of short chapters named for the characters whose perspectives they reflect — Kristy, her doctor husband David, their college-age daughter Mia, and Kristy’s half-brother Patrick, a recovering alcoholic teetering on the brink of relapse. We also get a handful of chapters from the vantage point of Michael, a gay rabbi with a deft pastoral touch.
I counted five Michael chapters, the same number of references to the Archangel Michael in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Maybe not a coincidence, as Brafman portrays Michael — whose name means “who is like God” — as a direct conduit to the divine for those who benefit from his ministry. When Michael comforts the comatose Kristy, she experiences visions of her past and future. These scenes feature the only first-person narration in the novel, when we are inside Kristy’s mind as she remains unconscious but still at least partially aware of her surroundings.
The book is broken into three acts — rupture, repair, and redemption. As Kristy and her family travel this trajectory, Brafman excels at conveying the inner lives and relationship dynamics of essentially good people who nonetheless make hurtful choices that sabotage their happiness. The result is a richly drawn portrait of a struggling family that finds a way from fracture to forgiveness and recovers the love at their core.
The setting of this novel is a suburb of Washington, DC, close to the one where my family and I have lived for the past 30 years. We lost two trees in that derecho, and that year happened to be a pretty tumultuous period in our lives too. Like the characters in this series, I often feel like I’m swimming with ghosts from a childhood marred by the crippling mental illness of both of my biological parents. Because these novels feel so relatable to me, I’m particularly grateful for the hope that Brafman gives us that repair and redemption are possible if we are lucky enough to be touched by grace.
In the sequel, Brafman again centers suburban mom Kristy. At the start of the second novel, Kristy has had a third child at age 48 — one whose uncertain paternity is a linchpin of the plot. When Kristy suffers a freak accident that lands her in a coma, the family faces a prolonged crisis that leaves none of them unscathed. Secrets are revealed, but more often than not their unraveling imbues characters with greater empathy for one another. Old resentments thaw as characters see their pasts through new eyes. That pattern of repair suffuses the story with hope for healing of even the most painful ruptures of family members’ trust.
Draw Near to Me unspools as a succession of short chapters named for the characters whose perspectives they reflect — Kristy, her doctor husband David, their college-age daughter Mia, and Kristy’s half-brother Patrick, a recovering alcoholic teetering on the brink of relapse. We also get a handful of chapters from the vantage point of Michael, a gay rabbi with a deft pastoral touch.
I counted five Michael chapters, the same number of references to the Archangel Michael in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. Maybe not a coincidence, as Brafman portrays Michael — whose name means “who is like God” — as a direct conduit to the divine for those who benefit from his ministry. When Michael comforts the comatose Kristy, she experiences visions of her past and future. These scenes feature the only first-person narration in the novel, when we are inside Kristy’s mind as she remains unconscious but still at least partially aware of her surroundings.
The book is broken into three acts — rupture, repair, and redemption. As Kristy and her family travel this trajectory, Brafman excels at conveying the inner lives and relationship dynamics of essentially good people who nonetheless make hurtful choices that sabotage their happiness. The result is a richly drawn portrait of a struggling family that finds a way from fracture to forgiveness and recovers the love at their core.
The setting of this novel is a suburb of Washington, DC, close to the one where my family and I have lived for the past 30 years. We lost two trees in that derecho, and that year happened to be a pretty tumultuous period in our lives too. Like the characters in this series, I often feel like I’m swimming with ghosts from a childhood marred by the crippling mental illness of both of my biological parents. Because these novels feel so relatable to me, I’m particularly grateful for the hope that Brafman gives us that repair and redemption are possible if we are lucky enough to be touched by grace.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
A family uncertain about the status of their loved one; in pre-stages of mourning and rediscovering the 'how' in loving flawed family members. Indeed what pulls us together internally despite our shortcomings, is love and for many of us this comes primarily from strong family connections and support.
This is what the book attempts to explore in this novel. I picked this up for the promising premise and was interested in delving deep into character work as hinted in the book description.
I tried to finish this book but I just cannot bring myself to. There is a lot of exposition that happens and alot of descriptions of characters doing things. There is very little happening between the descriptions of their every move. Sometimes characters that don't really matter to overall story gets introduced and mentioned like they are integral (like the guy on the plane, archie) but is just a tool to move the story along and for whoever is in focus to throw backstory at. The emotions of each character, their personalities, their motivations feels lost in all the painstaking descriptions of the smallest movements and decisions.
What worked well: the setting and the family dynamics. but again, these were overexplained.
I may not be the target demographic for this, so take my review with a grain of salt.
This is what the book attempts to explore in this novel. I picked this up for the promising premise and was interested in delving deep into character work as hinted in the book description.
I tried to finish this book but I just cannot bring myself to. There is a lot of exposition that happens and alot of descriptions of characters doing things. There is very little happening between the descriptions of their every move. Sometimes characters that don't really matter to overall story gets introduced and mentioned like they are integral (like the guy on the plane, archie) but is just a tool to move the story along and for whoever is in focus to throw backstory at. The emotions of each character, their personalities, their motivations feels lost in all the painstaking descriptions of the smallest movements and decisions.
What worked well: the setting and the family dynamics. but again, these were overexplained.
I may not be the target demographic for this, so take my review with a grain of salt.
Review of advance copy
Another Michelle Brafman novel! What a gift! The format of short chapters each shifting focus to a different character made it highly readable. As a follow up to Swimming with Ghosts, I was initially concerned that I didn’t remember enough details of the previous novel, but the relevant facts are revealed to make it a stand-alone for those who have or have not read the previous book. The book is an intimate portrait of complex family dynamics and various addictions that are each the result of childhood traumas. The titles of each section reveal the themes of rupture, repair, and redemption. The angelic character of Rabbi Michael is there to guide everyone along the way, but there are other more fallible humans – sponsors, friends, family members, even a stranger on a plane – who model how to show up for others. I loved that so much of it was set in Rehoboth – one of my favorite places in the world. I could taste the Nicola’s pizza.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
I was eager for the chance to encounter these characters I'd grown attached to in Brafman's propulsive novel, SWIMMING WITH GHOSTS. In DRAW NEAR TO ME, the chickens come home to roost, so to speak, as ramifications of events that occurred in the first book radiate out and raise new and compelling conflicts that touch every member of this family. In the process, the novel explores questions about family ties, their intricacy, and whether those ties that unravel can still be repaired. DRAW NEAR TO ME is a humane and hopeful story about the durability of love amid generational secrets, guilt, betrayal, and doubt; a warm-hearted, engrossing portrait of a troubled family struggling to navigate the mess that is life.
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September 23, 2026What I loved about Draw Near to Me are the following:
1. The short, multiple points of view that comprised the chapters. Very effective.
2. The reader's imagination can fill in the details of the Kristy-Charlie affair. I also liked the timing of their sexual encounter that took place during the derecho. That serves as a great metaphor for the emotional storm that befell Kristy's family.
3. I kept looking for a comic relief character, then a third of the way through the novel, I had my answer. Brafman's writing—funny, irreverent, observing—reminded me of Irma Bombeck.
A really powerful saga of the residual strength of ruptured humans to “repair and redeem.”
Bill Wilburn
1. The short, multiple points of view that comprised the chapters. Very effective.
2. The reader's imagination can fill in the details of the Kristy-Charlie affair. I also liked the timing of their sexual encounter that took place during the derecho. That serves as a great metaphor for the emotional storm that befell Kristy's family.
3. I kept looking for a comic relief character, then a third of the way through the novel, I had my answer. Brafman's writing—funny, irreverent, observing—reminded me of Irma Bombeck.
A really powerful saga of the residual strength of ruptured humans to “repair and redeem.”
Bill Wilburn
October 5, 2026
The cover of Brafman’s second installment in her Swan Dive series, set in suburban Washington, DC., alludes to Kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing cracked ceramics with gold lacquer. Draw Near to Me stretches complex family relationships until they crack in nearly every direction, then recounts the hard emotional and physical work to repair them - from illness, addiction, grief, and distrust. It is work deeply grounded for Brafman’s characters in Jewish tradition, and, as in Swimming With Ghosts, the first novel in the series, anchored in Brafman's finely-observed details of everyday life.
August 8, 2026
Draw Near To Me by Michelle Brafman totally immersed me in the story of Kristi, David, and their family. Told from multiple points of view, it's a novel of family secrets, of repairs that must be made, of forgiveness that must be given--all written with a gripping precision. One doesn't have to read her first novel in the series, Swimming With Ghosts, to appreciate Draw Near to Me (but it's worth reading too!). On top of it all, this novel has a spiritual center that drew me in-- I'd highly recommend letting DRAW NEAR TO ME capture you too!! Caroline
September 13, 2026
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The ups, the downs and a family mystery left me wanting more. I highly recommend it!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews