Mendham High Grad's Novel To Be Published By Random House

MENDHAM, NJ — She's a Mendham High graduate, a nurse who also became a nurse practitioner, and she's now a novelist whose tale is set in a small New Jersey town with a suspicious resemblance to Mendham.

Karen Winn is a 1996 Mendham High School grad and Dutton/ Penguin Random House will release her debut novel on May 3.

The novel, "Our Little World" is set in the 1980s in a small, idyllic New Jersey town. Winn said it's a coming-of-age story that centers on two sisters whose relationship becomes forever altered when a neighborhood girl disappears at the local lake.

Winn revealed that Mendham has been fictionalized as Hammend, and Sunrise Lake is called Deer Chase Lake. "There are many other nods to Mendham and to my own childhood within the book," she explained.

Winn said the book explores the complicated bond of sisterhood, the corrosive power of envy, and how the traumas of our youths can shape our identities for a lifetime. "Our Little World" delivers that exploration in a looming mystery about two sisters with a relationship equal parts love and envy, whose lives are suddenly and irrevocably changed by the neighborhood girl's disappearance.

In the aftermath, the sisters' little world cracks, both inside the home, as secrets, guilt, and jealousy come between them; and outside of it, as the illusion of stability in their close-knit community is shattered, Winn said.

The novel has received blurbs from authors Elin Hilderbrand, Mary Beth Keane, and Sally Hepworth, and early readers are giving glowing reviews.

Winn said the street she grew up on in the 1980s and '90s is similar to Hickory Lane, with a cul-de-sac, where she and her siblings used to play with the neighborhood kids.

"We belonged to the Mendham Racquetball Club and spent our summers lounging at its pool. It's a place where innocence largely reigns. However, as I've grown older, I've become fascinated with dark undercurrents of life — the notion that everything could change, at a moment’s notice. I decided to insert tragedy into childhood I knew and see what happens," Winn said.

Winn explained the starting point for the novel came from an incident that occurred when she was younger and swimming at Sunrise Lake. "My mother couldn’t find me, as I loved to swim underwater for long periods of time, so she panicked and alerted the lifeguard."

"When I came up for air, I noticed swimmers were exiting the lake — though I wasn’t sure why. I followed them and spotted my frantic mother standing with the lifeguard, who was nervously pointing out other children and asking, 'Is this her?'"

She explained the incident has always stayed with her, and it "seemed like a powerful starting point for a story."

She said it made her ask: "What if I — or someone else — had gone missing that day?"

Winn has had another career as a registered nurse, then a nurse practitioner, and even holds a doctorate in nursing. "These days I no longer see patients; I'm a clinical consultant and find this work very valuable and fulfilling. But I’ve also always loved writing — so even in the throes of nursing study, I was always stealing time to write. I attended a low-residency Master of Fine Arts program and have taken many, many writing classes over the years. Writing 'Our Little World' has been a labor of love, for sure," she said.

If you'd like to meet the author, Winn is doing a reading at The Bookworm in Bernardsville on June 11 at 3 p.m. View "Our Little World" on the publisher's website here.

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