Brand New Human Being, the debut novel from Emily Jeanne Miller, is the story of a man who is having a difficult time transitioning from the role of son, to that of father, which is due in part to the odd (and often distant) relationship he had with his own father. It also depicts the attachment a child sometimes feels to his/her parents–in this case an only child of a single parent–in which the child (even a grown child) wishes to feel that no one will ever be as close to the parent as s/he is, nor will anyone ever know as much about a parent as s/he does. The death of a parent can have far-reaching (negative) effects on a child, especially when there are unresolved issues in the parent-child relationship at the time of death. Miller does a good job writing about all of these subjects.