SummaryA new novel of love, loss, and family forgiveness from
the author of The Last Beach Bungalow.
A photo of her sons. A doormat from Target. Twenty-three
tubs of fabric. Somehow it comforts Lauren to list the
things she lost when a wildfire engulfed the Santa Barbara
avocado ranch she shared with her husband, Tom. He, too,
didn’t survive the devastating fire. His last act was
to save her grandmother’s lace from the
flames—an heirloom she has never been able to take
scissors to, that she was saving for someday.
As she negotiates her way through grief, mourning both the
tangible and intangible, Lauren wonders about her long
marriage. Was it worth all the work, the self-denial? Did
she stay with Tom just to avoid loneliness? Should she have
been more like her mother, Eileen—thrice-married and,
even now in her elderly years, cavalier about men and, it
seems, even about her daughter’s emotions?
Now, it’s up to Lauren to understand what she could
still gain even when it seems that everything is lost.
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