Dear Second Husband: Stories

by Susan Finch

Set against the backdrop of a rapidly changing Nashville, Tennessee, Dear Second Husband follows a cast of deeply human characters as they try—often imperfectly—to make their marriages, friendships, and families endure under the pressures of contemporary life. As the city grows and shifts around them, these men and women confront private losses, unspoken longings, and the quiet fractures that form within intimate relationships.

An unapologetic widower navigating love after grief, a self-destructive musician teetering between ambition and collapse, a teacher mourning a miscarriage that reshapes her sense of self, and a mother stretched thin by the impossible task of being everything to everyone all struggle to reconcile who they are with who they are expected to be. Moving through moments of tenderness, anger, and hard-earned grace, the characters rely on resilience and persistence to find meaning in their lives, discovering joy and belonging not in perfect resolutions, but in the fragile, sustaining connections they form with one another.

Genres: Short Stories

152 pages, Paperback

Published February 17, 2026

About the author

Susan Finch is an Associate Dean and Professor of English at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Her work has appeared in The Chicago Tribune, Crab Orchard Review, New Ohio Review, The Greensboro Review, and others.

Reviews

[Susannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This prismatic, funny, touching collection of short stories did my heart good and kept me well entertained in the drear of a Nashville winter. Nashville is something of a character here—a setting that shows up as a multifaceted influence on the protagonists' lives and feels well lived-in (the author knows the city, that's for sure!). We get bachelorette hijinks on Broadway, but we also get the aviary at Radnor Lake, an instrument storage space, swim lessons, and more. Women's lives are beautifully textured in these tales: they work all kinds of jobs, they love (and leave) their partners, they save lives, they break hearts. Finch's comedic sensibility is perfect, warm, never straining. These stories feel like good friends, and I'm glad they'll be living on my bookshelf.

[Heather Daugherty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once I started reading this collection of short stories I could not stop. Each one was so engaging and got down to the heart of human experience. Though not a Nashville native, I enjoyed reading stories set in familiar places.

[Aleah · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐️