The Great Alone

by Kristin Hannah

In real life, she saw, it wasn’t like that. It was sadness opening up inside of you, changing how you saw the world.

She could hardly imagine a thing as terrible as losing your mother. The very thought of it made Leni sick to her stomach. A girl was like a kite; without her mother’s strong, steady hold on the string, she might just float away, be lost somewhere among the clouds.