First published 2008
Elizabeth McCracken describes herself as a prize-winning novelist in her thirties who embraced the life of a wandering writer and confirmed spinster. Then love arrived unexpectedly. She married and found herself in remote rural France, working on her novel while awaiting her first child's birth. In her ninth month of pregnancy, McCracken receives devastating news. Her baby boy has died. The memoir follows her struggle with this profound loss. McCracken explores how someone continues living after such tragedy. She examines the interconnected nature of love and grief with characteristic humor and generosity. Her honest account offers companionship to anyone who has faced similar loss or knows someone who has. McCracken opens her personal experience to help others navigate their own difficult journeys forward.
Genres: family-life, grief, memoir, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: grief, loss
Setting: France
Period: 21st-century
184 pages · Kindle Edition · Little, Brown and Company
Content warnings: child-death, pregnancy-loss