Wish I Were Here

Catherine Lipton’s childhood was filled with uncertainty as her loving but flighty father bounced from job to job and apartment to apartment. She learned to love rules and order, keeping track of school schedules and rent due dates amid her father’s freewheeling chaos. Now she’s an adult, with a new job as a mathematics professor and a quiet apartment she loves, even if the building’s doorman, Luca, is prone to misplacing her dry cleaning and leaving the front desk unattended. On her university’s orientation day, Catherine is stunned to learn that all her meticulously filled out paperwork has been rejected, and her identity declared fraudulent. Faced with the prospect of joblessness and imminent homelessness, Catherine agrees to accept help from happy-go-lucky Luca and his sprawling Italian family. The more she’s forced to bend her rules, the more Catherine begins to wonder if her strictly regimented, calm, and quiet life is what she wants after all.