"Evening Begins the Day follows lives drifting through their own wildernesses. As a marriage shaken by infidelity and a mother trying to keep her daughter safe without losing her trust begin to overlap in unexpected ways, the novel unfolds like a confession: honest, intimate, and impossible to put down. It asks how we measure love and live with uncertainty when trust is broken and relationships feel like guessing in the dark. A gorgeous, important work of hard-earned love, and you will be changed by reading it." -Susan Henderson, author of The Flicker of Old Dreams, 2019 High Plains Book Award Winner for Fiction

"Expertly weaves the ancient wisdom of elders with some very modern problems-with revelatory, astonishing results." -Alex George, author of The Paris Hours and the #1 Indie Next List Pick, A Good American

"A magnificent work of fiction. With spare, gorgeous insight and a compelling sense of pace, [Keener] maps how small, everyday moments drive the larger, at times irrevocable, events of a life." -Dawn Tripp, author of bestselling novels Georgia and Jackie

"With an emotional sensitivity and clarity of prose that reminds me of writers like Ann Napolitano and Elizabeth Strout, Jessica Keener brings to life a tale of two families in crisis and how these modern skeptical people stumble into an ancient spiritual practice that haltingly and convincingly brings them to hope, love, and solace. This is a beautiful and ultimately uplifting book." -Elizabeth Letts, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty Dollar Champion, and the novels, Finding Dorothy and The Ride of Her Life

"What does it mean to totally trust someone you love, be it a partner or child, your job, or even the world around you? Keener's new novel springs from an emotional affair and soars into the lives of two very different families in a way that's both propulsive and spiritual. Deeply immersive, comforting, inspiring, and real, Evening Begins the Day made me see and experience these indelible characters' world-and my own-differently."-Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, Cruel Beautiful World, and Days of Wonder

"Evening Begins the Day follows lives drifting through their own wildernesses. As a marriage shaken by infidelity and a mother trying to keep her daughter safe without losing her trust begin to overlap in unexpected ways, the novel unfolds like a confession: honest, intimate, and impossible to put down. It asks how we measure love and live with uncertainty when trust is broken and relationships feel like guessing in the dark. A gorgeous, important work of hard-earned love, and you will be changed by reading it." -Susan Henderson, author of The Flicker of Old Dreams, 2019 High Plains Book Award Winner for Fiction

"Expertly weaves the ancient wisdom of elders with some very modern problems-with revelatory, astonishing results." -Alex George, author of The Paris Hours and the #1 Indie Next List Pick, A Good American

"A magnificent work of fiction. With spare, gorgeous insight and a compelling sense of pace, [Keener] maps how small, everyday moments drive the larger, at times irrevocable, events of a life." -Dawn Tripp, author of bestselling novels Georgia and Jackie

"With an emotional sensitivity and clarity of prose that reminds me of writers like Ann Napolitano and Elizabeth Strout, Jessica Keener brings to life a tale of two families in crisis and how these modern skeptical people stumble into an ancient spiritual practice that haltingly and convincingly brings them to hope, love, and solace. This is a beautiful and ultimately uplifting book." -Elizabeth Letts, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Eighty Dollar Champion, and the novels, Finding Dorothy and The Ride of Her Life

"What does it mean to totally trust someone you love, be it a partner or child, your job, or even the world around you? Keener's new novel springs from an emotional affair and soars into the lives of two very different families in a way that's both propulsive and spiritual. Deeply immersive, comforting, inspiring, and real, Evening Begins the Day made me see and experience these indelible characters' world-and my own-differently." -Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You, Cruel Beautiful World, and Days of Wonder

"What relevance do ancient Jewish rituals have in our modern lives? And can the frameworks of our ancestors repair our relationships to each other? These are the questions that punctuate Jessica Brilliant Keener's restrained and powerful new novel, Evening Begins the Day, which weaves two families' lives together as they contend with the ways in which their relationships have frayed at the edges and now threaten to unravel entirely." -Jewish Book Council

Publisher: Koehler Books

Pub date: 2026-03-24

Length: 312 pages