In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mother's year of heartbreak, loss, and forgiveness—and help that arrives from unexpected sources.
Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.
As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, overmanicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.
As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.
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"When the back cover described Juliette Fay's debut novel as reminiscent of Marisa de Los Santos and Lolly Winston's Good Grief, I nodded and smiled and thought "You wish." Oh, they mention Anne Tyler, too, but that doesn't impress me quite as much. The great back cover writers of the world do not lie. I did not start this book with a lot of hope, but I quickly became incredibly attached to the protagonist. The storyline itself does sound almost a bit too similar to Good Grief, one of my favorite books of all time (thanks be to God). It essentially tells the story of a young widow's life in the first year after her husband's unexpected death. But if that was the only likeness, I wouldn't have even finished the book. Fay's writing style is also like Winston and de Los Santos' in the way the reader becomes so emotionally involved. It doesn't matter that the plot doesn't resemble any experience of my own. I felt everything Janie, the main character, felt, just as deeply. This is usually my definition of good writing, when I feel like I can totally empathize with one of the characters. You probably have to be in a bit of the right place to read and appreciate this--it's an emotional roller coaster--but it's totally worth it."
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Tracy (5 out of 5 stars)