Torch

Teresa Rae Wood is a waitress and something of a local celebrity in the town of Midden, Minnesota. Her popular radio show, Modern Pioneers!, is an eternal embarrassment to her two children, Claire and Joshua, and a source of amused pride to her common-law husband, Bruce. When Teresa summons Claire and Joshua home unexpectedly, they are floored by her news: Teresa, only 38, is dying of cancer. In a few weeks, she is gone.

Now the mundane irritations and small betrayals of family relationships loom dangerously large, as Claire, Joshua, and Bruce -- isolated in grief just when they need each other most -- seek comfort elsewhere. To his children's disbelief, Bruce quickly marries their neighbor from the farm next door. Claire obstinately protects her mother's memory, while Joshua drifts beyond her reach.

Strayed has a pitch-perfect ear for the large passions and careless cruelties that families inflict on each other in times of crisis. The intimate portraits of these fully human characters reveal exacting truths about grief, forgiveness, and the beautiful terrors of learning how to keep living.