"If she dies, I'll die," are the words 15-year-old Mia Perlman writes in her journal the night her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Twelve days later, Mia's mother is dead, and Mia, her older sister, and their father must find a way to live on in the face of sudden, unfathomable loss. For Mia, this means getting through a funeral led by a rabbi who belongs in Las Vegas; dealing with a social worker who appears to have been educated at the local beauty academy; sharing "healthy heart" meals with her father, who seems to be seeing her for the first time; trying to relate to her sister, whose idea of fun is solving quadtratic equations; and developing a crush on Cancer Guy, who is actually kind of cute. But mostly it means carrying the image of her mother with her everywhere, because some kinds of love never die. Still, even in grief there is the chance for new beginnings.
Author
Margo Rabb is the author of the novels Lucy Clark Will Not Apologize, Kissing in America, Cures for Heartbreak, and the Missing Persons series. Kissing in America and Cures for Heartbreak both received four starred reviews; Kissing in America was named a best book of the year by the New York Public Library, the Chicago Public Library, and the American Library Association, and was named to the Amelia Bloomer Project’s List of Recommended Feminist Literature. Her essays, journalism, book reviews, and short stories have been published in The New York Times, The New York Times Book Review, The Atlantic, Slate, Salon, Marie Claire, The Rumpus, Zoetrope: All-Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, One Story, One Teen Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on NPR. She received the grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in The Atlantic fiction contest, first prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Project Award. She’s received fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Bread Loaf Writer’s Conference, and the Sewanee Writer’s Conference. Margo grew up in Queens, New York, and has lived in Texas, Arizona, and the Midwest; she now lives in the Philadelphia area with her family. website: www.margorabb.com Instagram: @margo_rabb Twitter: @margorabb
