Roy Freirichs novel Winged Creatures intimately depicts the inner lives of five people driven by secret torments and dangerous compulsions in flight from their own memories and dreams as they struggle to regain their trust in the ordinary world The basis for the 2008 film starring Kate Beckinsale and Dakota FanningShots ring out in a local fast food restaurant Teenager Anne Hagen and her best friend Jimmy hide under a table watching a suicidal gunman randomly murder her father and others Winged Creatures tells the stories of the survivors Struggling to understand her fathers death Anne develops a religious hysteria Jimmy becomes mute protecting a secret that he and Anne share until it nearly destroys him and his already fractured family Grazed by a bullet driving instructor Charlie becomes obsessed with pressing his luck at a casino By dangerous degrees restaurant cashier Carla loses her ability to care for herself and her infant son Dr Laraby an ER physician who failed to revive the shooting victims turns to his wife as someone to save while psychologist Ron Abler tries to counsel the witnesses but meets suspicion and resistance