SOLVED. Novel about a widow, literary fiction, maybe set in New England, at the end she has a sense of her ancestors. [s]

[Debbie]

I cannot remember the name of the book I read about 10 years ago with these plot elements:
1. The story opens with a husband dying suddenly out on a walk. He is in his 60-70s. It takes a while for his wife to find him.
2. In flashbacks, the widow remembers how passionate she and her husband were, even later in life.
3. The novel may have been set in Vermont or New Hampshire.
4. The widow makes her way through life, particularly with her adult children and grandchildren.
5. At the end of the novel, the woman experiences a sense that her female ancestors are holding hands and welcoming her to the circle of her family and they are holding her responsible for passing on a legacy.
6. This was not a romance novel. It was serious fiction.

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

So she doesn't discover any secrets her husband was keeping, like a double life, another family, a gambling addiction? The marriage was 100% positive?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Possibly Evenings at Five: A Novel and Five New Stories? It has flashbacks apparently.

Or maybe The Hatbox Letters?

October Light is set in Vermont but seems less likely.

[Debbie]

Hi, Lobstergirl,
Thank you for these three suggestions. They certainly closely resemble the book that I recall, but they are not the right one. As I recall, the marriage was a positive one. Please keep running ideas past me. This is driving me crazy :)
Debbie

[Debbie]

Lobstergirl wrote: "Possibly Evenings at Five: A Novel and Five New Stories? It has flashbacks apparently.

Or maybe The Hatbox Letters?

October Light is set in Vermont but s..."

Hi, Lobstergirl,
Thank you for these three suggestions. They certainly closely resemble the book that I recall, but they are not the right one. As I recall, the marriage was a positive one. Please keep running ideas past me. This is driving me crazy :)
Debbie

[Debbie]

Debbie wrote: "I cannot remember the name of the book I read about 10 years ago with these plot elements:
1. The story opens with a husband dying suddenly out on a walk. He is in his 60-70s. It takes a while for ..."

Debbie wrote: "I cannot remember the name of the book I read about 10 years ago with these plot elements:
1. The story opens with a husband dying suddenly out on a walk. He is in his 60-70s. It takes a while for ..."

[Debbie]

BUMP

[Kris]

Please note you can bump your request (post a comment) every 30+ days - or sooner if you remember more information. Not more often because this group is so large.

Tips for posting a book request - https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Debbie]

Bump

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Debbie is still looking for this and wrote:

"I am still trying to find the title for a novel written about 10 years ago with these elements:

1. The story opens with a husband dying suddenly out on a walk. He is in his 60-70s. It takes a while for his wife to find him.

2. In flashbacks, the widow remembers how passionate she and her husband were, even later in life.

3. The novel may have been set in New England.

4. The widow makes her way through life, particularly with her adult children and grandchildren. She gets a lot of suggestions about how to live her life from her adult children, but she makes her own decisions.

5. At the end of the novel, the woman experiences a sense that her female ancestors are holding hands and welcoming her to the circle of her family and they are holding her responsible for passing on a legacy.

6. This was not a romance novel. It was serious fiction. (It's not by Elizabeth Berg.)

Thanks for any suggestions."

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Please bookmark this thread so you don't lose it, and you can bump it every 30 days (or longer).

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Here is the thread where Miriam, a bookseller, is looking for the book for you....

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[arratavy]

Every Last Cuckoo by Kate Maloy?

Publishers Weekly:
Maloy explored northern landscapes and Quaker faith in her memoir A Stone Bridge North ; she returns to both in her moving debut novel. When 75-year-old Sarah Lucas’s husband, Charles, succumbs to an injury at the peak of a particularly brutal Vermont winter, her worst later-life fears of physical mishap are realized. In grief, Sarah’s memories take her back to the Great Depression, when her parents generously opened their home to countless friends and relatives, and to her own regretted missteps as a parent. The chance to recreate the one experience and rectify the other arrives uninvited when a variety of lost souls—Sarah’s own teenage granddaughter; an Israeli pacifist; a devastated young mother and child—seek shelter and solace in Sarah’s too-empty home. The motley assortment of characters, many of whom have been touched by violence, deliver passionate apostrophes on peace and justice, and together Sarah and her boarders discover unseen beauty in the landscape, uncover hidden talents and develop a nurturing, healing community. Maloy’s wordplay and startling nature imagery enchant, but readers will have to decide if the spectacular climax, an expression of its characters’ principles in action, is out of place with the novel’s quiet thoughtfulness.

[Debbie]

That's it! That's the one! Every Last Cuckoo! Oh, thank you so much. I believe I now have some brain cells left for other things that I have lost over the years!