Dinner Club Diaries

By Fritz Nordengren

January 13^th, 2026

A dialogue-rich ensemble novel

Daniela Whitaker has a life that fits: two teenage sons, a steady job at the employment resource center, and the familiar comfort of a public-radio host she listens to every Saturday.

When her offhand voicemail for the station goes viral, she’s suddenly invited to a donor dinner with a hospice nurse with a punk past, a reclusive chef, a former teenage car thief rebuilding her life, and a vinyl and used bookshop owner whose life looks nothing like hers

Following this awkward fundraiser, the women form a dinner club — not a sentimental sisterhood, but a collision of stories, class, humor, and heart, as each of them explores life’s second act.