What a magnificent story for a debut author.
This is the story of Sloane, Ava, Grace and Julia with a little bit of Ellen thrown in.
It considers the mighty topics of grief, loss, guilt and shame and how to know when you are ready to move on in life and love after the death of a loved one.
Aside from the story of a move for Sloane from USA to Australia for a year, meeting Ava and Grace (her 4 year old) this is a marvellous depiction of grief and how it affects the way that we view the world. And indeed how the world views those that are grieving.
Sloane is grieving the death of her wife Julia and sees the world in greyscale, whilst still very much sensing Julia with her wherever she is. As she inadvertently becomes closer to Ava ( an actor whose fame had not reached Sloane), Grace and Ellen over the year she goes away for a weekend with Ava and experiences colour. This understandably throws her as she thought her life would always be grey. And it makes her feel that she is betraying the memory of Julia by moving on with Ava and Grace.
It is not as straightforward as that though.
In her grief she regrets the things that she didn’t do – the everyday things of making a favourite dish for dinner etc rather than the larger decisions of life.
When Sloane returns to USA at the end of the year she realises there are things she needs to do in order to move on. It is Grace and her perception of being forgotten by Sloane that makes her examine what she knows she wants to do.
There is of course an epilogue.
This shows how they have all moved on in life. It is not just Sloane that has decided life is too precious to waste – Ava has also tackled what she wanted from her career.