Shelter Me 9781455111510 Author:Juliette Fay In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mother's year of heartbreak, loss, and forgiveness--and help that arrives from unexpected sources. — Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a... more » builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband--now his last gift to her.
As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow--mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, overmanicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.
As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others--even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.