If I were a teenager, this would be a coming of age story. But having celebrated my fifty-fifth birthday yesterday – complete with champagne, cake, and more candles than anyone wants to see in one place – I suppose this is  more a coming of old age story. The tale of a woman well aware that the best is no longer yet to come. Proud that all the years of canoeing and weight training and green tea have given her firm arms, a straight back and a heart so strong the little darling will probably beat for years and years to come. Yet knowing with aching clarity that none of these things will stop, or even slow, the inevitable decline before her.

Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. As those thoughtful cards from the Humorous Birthday section of the Hallmark store pointed out, I may be Over The Hill and Past My Best Before Date, but I am also officially a Junior Senior now, entitling me to a free coffee refill at Donut King and a ten percent discount on power tools this week at the hardware store on Sherbourne. Pity I swore off coffee twenty years ago and already have a shed full of tools courtesy of Jack Hoyle – the man who finished renovating my second floor bedroom yesterday, and shared it with me last night after the party.

REVIEWS:

“Simmons exhibits an exquisitely deft understanding of the extraordinary difficulties that unite a family, and her portrayals of the three women, told in alternating first-person chapters, enable satisfying connections with each.”
– Publisher’s Weekly

WHERE TO BUY

Different Drummer Books
513 Locust Street
Burlington, ON
905-639-0925

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Publisher: Berkley Trade
On Sale: December 7, 2010
ISBN – 10: 0425237249
ISBN – 13: 9780425237243