A dual timeline story of 1975, when Maggie is heading to a resort in the Poconos to work and discover what her brother did when he was there the previous summer prior to his untimely death from leukemia. Maggie is grieving the loss of her older brother and remembering him at his best. She wonders why he chose to leave in the midst of being a cancer patient and didn’t tell his family where he was. She soon learns they were like a camp family and mostly didn’t know he was sick.
The timeline jumps back and forth from 1975 Maggie to 1974 Chip, when he is living the last few months of his life and working at the resort.
I knew this would be a book about grief and moments of human connection, I knew it would be sad. This is purely devastating, it’s 50% grieving (Maggie) and 50% dying and dealing with dying (Chip). This is written with so much personal wisdom and raw emotion. It was so sad to think of Chip wanting to feel alive by hiding his treatment. There are also some lovely small town minor characters that rounded out the lovely setting.
Do I recommend it? Definitely, if you are in the mood for a good mournful cry.
Thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for the ARC. Book to be published June 29, 2026.
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