In Lois Rafferty's new novel, a woman's car skids through wet leaves one foggy autumn evening, instantly killing a child. In that moment, her carefully ordered life comes apart. A complex journey that involves a painful reexamination of her marriage, her ties to her adult children, her career, closest friendship, an adulterous relationship, and her own childhood, parallels her exhausting fight for her own survival. At the center of the struggle is the child who has perished. To make peace with this child, to assuage her guilt, she must revisit another child: the child she herself had been, a child she had long ago chosen to leave behind. She must then decide: does she deserve to go on? Does she even want to? Or will she find the courage to battle back to wholeness and sanity? That decision, hers alone to make, will forever alter the lives of the people she most loves. 

About the Author:

Lois Rafferty has been a frequent speaker and writer on issues of loss and recovery. She has taught human services/gerontology courses, for a number of years for several colleges and universities. 

The author's goal, with this novel, was to explore her interest in grief and survival. She knows about struggles inherent to loss and change; she believes in the power of healing, via friendship, family, internal fortitude, and faith. If this story has a message, it is, simply this: the darkest journeys are endurable; we do our best; we muddle through; and finally, strength of spirit can be impenetrable. Therein lies the mystery in being human; therein lies the hope.