First published 2023
Mary Louise Kelly has spent years telling herself "next year" when it comes to being present for her children. Next year she'll make it to James's soccer games instead of being on air for All Things Considered. Next year she'll drive carpool for Alexander instead of chasing stories about Ukraine. Now James is seventeen and heading to college soon, and Kelly realizes her time for do-overs has ended. She has months, not years, to make good on her promises. As she navigates her eldest son's final year at home, Kelly also confronts the death of her beloved father and the realities of aging parents. She wrestles with the fundamental questions every parent faces about what they did right and wrong. This chronicle of a pivotal year explores the bittersweet reality that childhood has an expiration date and examines the weight of choices between career and family.
Genres: family-life, american-fiction, adult-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, parenting
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: bittersweet, found-family
240 pages · Hardcover · Henry Holt and Co.