In 1969, as Peter, Paul and Mary croon on the radio and poster paints splash the latest antiwar slogans, three young friends find love. Suzanne, a poet, lives in a Maine beach house awaiting the birth of a child she will call Sparrow. Claudia, who weds a farmer during college, plans to raise three strong sons. Elizabeth and her husband marry, organize protests, and try to rear two children with their hippie values. By 1985, things have changed: Suzanne, now with an MBA, calls Sparrow Susan. Claudia spirals backward into her sixties world-and madness. And Elizabeth, fatally ill, watches despairingly as her children yearn for a split-level house and a gleaming station wagon. Somewhere Off the Coast of Maine is Ann Hood's stunning debut novel about the choices we make when we are young, and the changes brought about by the passing of time.