cover image Somebody's Baby

Somebody's Baby

Claire Harrison. Doubleday Books, $17.95 (244pp) ISBN 978-0-385-26087-9

Airing minor family grievances with their two children at a ``Family Stress Management'' session, Nora and Marty Beeme are astonished when 15-year-old Christine announces that she is pregnant. Nora and Marty, who met and married in the liberal '60s, want Christine to have an abortion and pick up her life as before. Christine, influenced by a pro-life group, wants to keep the baby, even though Marty maintains she can no longer live at home if she does so. Nora, who is also a part-owner of a children's shop, tries desperately to bind the fractures within her family. Her 11-year-old son is becoming increasingly rebellious and her strong, 20-year marriage begins to unravel. Sensitively offering pro-choice and pro-life views in her first hardcover novel (she previously wrote paperback romances), Harrison also probes the strengths and weaknesses of love within marriage, exploring Nora's fantasies, fears and dreams. (June)