Life Without Summer

"Spellbinding. . . . Griffin's carefully crafted characters ring heartbreakingly true and her finely wrought plot will snare readers from the first page." —Publishers Weekly, starred review
Life Without Summer tells the story of Tessa, a mother who has just lost her four-year-old daughter in a hit-and-run accident and the grief counselor, Celia, who tries to help her to put her life back together. When their lives begin to intersect in powerful and unexpected ways, they discover that the answers one needs might be the other's only chance for peace. Each woman's intensely personal journey reverberates with universal themes about the connections between love, marriage, truth, and forgiveness that no reader will forget.


"This stirringly believable epistolary novel . . . [will be a] strong addition to women's' fiction." —Booklist

"A remarkable debut novel." —Kristin Hannah, New York Times–bestselling author of True Colors

"An insightful, honest book about the nature of grief, loss, love, marriage and divorce. . . . a compelling novel of character and of life." —Jeanne Ray, New York Times–bestselling author of Julie and Romeo and Eat Cake

"Griffin is a master of the crisp and telling detail, and her troubled main characters are wonderfully human." —Martha Moody, national bestselling author of Best Friends and The Office of Desire

"Absorbing and deftly plotted." —Margot Livesey, author of New York Times Notable Book Eva Moves the Furniture and Banishing Verona