Review
"Griffin's fiction debut is a spellbinding tale of loss and hard-won redemption. When Tessa Gray's four-year-old daughter, Abby, is killed by a hit and run driver, there are no witnesses. From first meeting, Tessa distrusts the detective assigned to the case and, with her journalism background and ties to newspapers in nearby Boston, she begins to dig for her own answers to the identity of Abby's killer. Meanwhile, she vents her grief with Celia, a compassionate but reserved therapist. Celia's story with its tragic undertones, unfolds parallel to Tessa's: Celia has a second marriage, a secretive teenage son and en ex-husband who makes her current family circle impossible tense. At the office, Celia is practical and pulled together, but her home life buzzes with strife. Outside therapy, Celia's and Tessa's narratives remain separate until they shockingly intersect and lead the way to hard-won healing for both. Griffin's carefully crafted characters ring heartbreakingly true and her finely wrought plot will snare readers from the first page." --"Publishers Weekly," Starred Review"This is an insightful, honest book about the nature of grief, loss, love, marriage and divorce...Each time my family's needs forced me to put it down, I found myself anticipating the time I could pick up it up again. Lynne Griffin has given readers the gift of a compelling novel of character and of life." --Jeanne Ray, "New York Times "bestselling" "author of "Julie and Romeo" and "Eat Cake" "I COULD NOT STOP READING!!!! "Life Without Summer" is what I consider the epitome of smart women's fiction. Once I picked this book up, I could not put it down and found it utterly real and compelling. This is a deeplysatisfying book that pulls us through the lives of two very different women any one of which could be ourselves." --Patricia Wood, Orange Prize-nominated author of "Lottery" "Part who-dunnit, part psychological portraiture, part an argument for the necessity of "facing" grief, "Life Without Summer "is an always-involving novel. Griffin is a master of the crisp and telling detail, and her troubled main characters are wonderfully human." --Martha Moody, national bestselling author of "Best Friends" and "The Office of Desire"
"There are many deep satisfactions in this absorbing and deftly plotted novel but what I most admired was Lynne Griffin's wonderfully complex characterization of her two heroines...A sparkling debut." --Margot Livesey, author of "New York Times "Notable" "Book "Eva Moves the Furniture" and" Banishing Verona"
"Griffin's sensitive debut reveals how loss can tear people apart yet be the same force that binds them again with strength and love. Many readers will find comfort and healing through this heartfelt, genuine story." --Ronlyn Domingue, author of "The Mercy of Thin Air"
Product Description
"Life Without Summer" deftly weaves together the lives of Tessa, a young mother who has just lost her four-year-old daughter in a hit-and-run accident outside her preschool, and Celia, the grief counselor who tries to help her put her life back together. Once the picture of domestic bliss, Tessa now grapples with the terrible emptiness left by her daughter's absence, made worse by the police's insistence that the case is unsolvable. As Celia struggles to keep Tessa from getting caught up in a bleak crusade for answers, she finds that their sessions open the door to emotions she's spent years ignoring, forcing her to face the rising tensions in her own life - her troubled teenage son, her alcoholic ex-husband, and her fragile new marriage. Celia soon finds that she must come to terms with the tragic mistakes of her own past and the choices that have led her family to the brink of destruction. Told in two voices, this novel is a haunting portrait of two women whose lives begin to converge unexpectedly when the answers one needs turn out to be the other's only chance for peace. "Life Without Summer" illuminates what can happen to one's self-identity and love relationships in the wake of tragedy. Each woman's intensely personal journey reverberates with universal themes about the connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness that no reader will forget.
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