Mendham Native's Debut Book Fictionalizes Home Town

MENDHAM, NJ - Have you been to Hammend? Well, if you live in northern New Jersey you have without knowing it.

Karen Winn’s debut novel features a fictionalized view of Mendham (in anagram Hammend) in the coming-of-age tale named "Our Little World," on sale May 3.

The story is about two sisters and their fraught relationship, which becomes forever altered in the aftermath of a neighborhood girl's disappearance.

Winn noted she drew on her own sheltered upbringing, her Hungarian heritage and her medical background as a nurse to bring the story to life, poignant coming-of-age novel to life.

“Hammend is a fictionalized version (and anagram) of where I grew up in New Jersey— Mendham, a small 5,000-person town where innocence largely reigned," Winn said. "As I’ve grown older, I’ve become a bit fascinated with dark undercurrents, the notion that life could all change, at a moment’s notice. I decided to insert tragedy into the childhood I knew and see what happens."

That tragedy begins in the summer of 1985, for soon-to-be seventh grader Bee Kocsis. Her thoughts center only on sunny days spent at Deer Chase Lake, evenings chasing fireflies around her cul-de-sac with the neighborhood kids, and Max, the boy who just moved in across the street.

That and the burgeoning worry that she’ll never be as special as her younger sister, Audrina, who seems to effortlessly dazzle wherever she goes.

But when Max’s little sister, Sally, goes missing at the lake, Bee’s long-held illusion of stability is shattered in an instant. As the families in her close-knit community turn inward, suspicious, and protective, things in Bee’s own home become increasingly strained, most of all with Audrina, when a shameful secret surfaces.

"The starting point for the novel came from an incident that occurred in my own childhood, when I was swimming at the local lake. My mother couldn’t find me, as I loved to swim underwater for long periods of time, so she panicked. The lifeguard blew the whistle,but I didn’t hear it. When I came up for air, I noticed swimmers were exiting the lake, so I followed them," Winn said. "I spotted my frantic mother standing with the lifeguard, who was nervously pointing out other children and asking, ‘Is this her?’"

The fictional disappearance pushes characters Bee and Audrina’s already-fraught sisterhood to the limit.

"That incident has always stayed with me, and it seemed like a powerful starting point for a story: What if I, or someone else, had gone missing that day?” Winn said.

Winn is holding a book launch event at 7 p.m. on Friday, May 13 at Little City Books, 100 Bloomfield Street.

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