A Year to the Day
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Robin Benway returns with a story of love, loss, and sisterhood reminiscent of I’ll Give You the Sun and Every Day. Told in reverse chronological order, A Year to the Day will claim a permanent home in your heart.
IT’S BEEN A YEAR—A YEAR OF MISSING NINA
Leo can’t remember what happened the night of the accident. All she knows is that she left the party with her older sister, Nina, and Nina’s boyfriend, East. And now Nina is dead, killed by a drunk driver and leaving Leo with a hole inside her that’s impossible to fill.
East, who loved Nina almost as much as Leo did, is the person who seems to most understand how she feels, and the two form a friendship based on their shared grief. But as she struggles to remember what happened, Leo discovers that East remembers every detail of the accident—and he won’t tell her anything about it. In fact, he refuses to talk about that night at all.
As the days tumble one into the next, Leo’s story comes together while her world falls apart. How can she move on if she never knows what really happened that night? And is happiness even possible in a world without Nina?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Told in reverse chronology, Benway's moving story of grief begins exactly one year after a family's tragic loss. Fifteen-year-old Leo's older sister Nina, 17, was killed in a car accident while driving home from a party 365 days ago; an accident that Leo, despite living it, doesn't remember. Now 16, all Leo can recall is leaving the party and seeing the police car's lights after a drunk driver plowed into the siblings' vehicle. In the days since the accident, Leo's family has struggled to navigate their heartbreak ("Grief still comes in waves, pulling the memory of Nina closer and then further away"). Leo's closest confidant is Nina's former boyfriend, East, who knows the truth of what happened that devastating night—but he won't tell Leo. As the clock winds back and details slowly emerge, Benway (Far from the Tree) highlights pivotal days throughout the year, rendering a persuasive portrait of heartache and loss. While the conclusion lacks the narrative's emotional intensity, suspense, unanswered questions, and raw emotion blend together in an honest examination of one family's varying symptoms and stages of grief. Most characters cue as white. Ages 13–up.
