A Novel
The In-Law Call
Thomas Avery
The system calls it dignity. The families call it Sunday.
The Story
When your parent turns seventy-five, the federal Dignity Commission assigns their Compassion Companion — chosen, by the system’s logic, for the distance that comes with marriage rather than blood.
Not their child. Their child’s spouse. The person closest to the family who isn’t quite of it. The Companion holds a sixteen-digit code, a portal login, and a footer on every page that reads Ready to begin the process?
Told in alternating chapters, The In-Law Call follows two families through the architecture of an impossible system — the orientations, the assessments, the 2 a.m. forums, and the kitchens where the real conversations happen.
Julie & Gloria
Julie has spent sixteen years navigating her mother-in-law — Gloria, retired judge, sharp as a tack. Now Gloria has turned seventy-five, and Julie holds the code. She also can’t tell whether anything is happening to Gloria at all.
Marco & Arturo
Marco has spent fifteen years of Sundays in Arturo’s kitchen, learning the sauce. Now his father-in-law is losing words — a few here and there, nothing that matters yet — and the assessment scores are dropping seven points at a time. Marco knows what that math means.
“An AI can learn the words. It can’t learn the garlic.”
Marco Castillo
Inside the Book
If I open it, I’m the person who can end Gloria Bergman’s life.
Julie · Chapter One
You must be the teacher. Good. We need more teachers. Come in, it’s almost ready.
Arturo · Chapter Two
If the line is clear, I want you to make the call.
Arturo · Chapter Eighteen
The footer of every page is an exit ramp.
Julie · Chapter Eleven
For Readers Of
Quiet, near-future literary fiction
Step Inside the World
Visit the Dignity Commission
The system in the novel has a website. It’s soft, and helpful, and lilac, and it will offer to let you take the Clarity Assessment yourself. Find out what number the machine gives you.
Enter dignitycommission.com →A fictional government portal, built from the pages of the book.
Get the Book
Coming soon in paperback, hardcover & ebook
The In-Law Call arrives soon. Leave a note through the contact form and Thomas will let you know the moment it’s available.
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