The Cage Within

The Cage Within is a literary novel told through a braided structure, following two couples across two timelines: David and Sarah's marriage in the past, and Tim and Rebecca's relationship in the present.

Set in the New England area, the novel alternates between Sarah's journey through the dissolution of her marriage to David, a process that reveals how accommodation, harmony, and the constant work of maintaining order can gradually become a cage, and Tim and Rebecca's careful construction of a new relationship, one built with attention to the patterns they've learned to avoid.

Through twenty chapters that move with psychological precision, the novel examines how relationships shape identity, how accommodation becomes expectation, and how the quiet work of maintaining harmony can slowly narrow the space for authentic expression. The dual-timeline structure creates a mirror effect: as Sarah excavates the past and recognizes the ways she participated in building constraints, Tim and Rebecca navigate the present, making different choices, testing boundaries, and learning to refuse the small deferrals that accumulate into confinement.

Told with restraint and emotional clarity, The Cage Within explores marriage, constraint, and the subtle ways we edit ourselves to maintain order. The braided narrative asks what remains when we stop accommodating, when we step outside without checking the weather, when we recognize that freedom is not found in leaving, but in ceasing to build the walls that contain us.