One woman is forced to finally forgive herself--with the help of a winsome eight-year-old sidekick--for not being able to save her sister from her life-long substance abuse.
The impact of a person's addiction on family is traumatic and all consuming. Lorna learned at an early age she would always play second fiddle to her older sister Kristen's addiction and her problems. It has made Lorna hard and untrusting--everyone she should have been able to trust has betrayed her in some way. As an adult, she has retreated into what she thinks of as her internal bomb shelter--always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She keeps to herself, her dog her only companion, until an eight-year-old boy from across the hall befriends her dog and then her.
Bean is the only person who doesn't seem to mind Lorna's gruff awkwardness, and at times, he speaks truth and wisdom beyond his years. When an opportunity to buy her grandmother's house comes up--the only place she has ever felt happy--Lorna is faced with the terms of a trust her mother left her: She must address the things in her life that have left her so bitter and make amends for them.
As she embarks on this journey through her life with Bean, her small Greek chorus, Lorna begins to realize that events that seemed ruined by her sister's addiction may not have happened as she remembers. And even if they did, her chance to make amends for them is freeing her from the guilt she has felt for her sister's troubles. She begins to accept that there is nothing she could have done to change the course of Kristen's life, but she can change the course of her own. And maybe, her grandmother's house is not the home she thinks it is.
Genre: General Fiction
The impact of a person's addiction on family is traumatic and all consuming. Lorna learned at an early age she would always play second fiddle to her older sister Kristen's addiction and her problems. It has made Lorna hard and untrusting--everyone she should have been able to trust has betrayed her in some way. As an adult, she has retreated into what she thinks of as her internal bomb shelter--always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She keeps to herself, her dog her only companion, until an eight-year-old boy from across the hall befriends her dog and then her.
Bean is the only person who doesn't seem to mind Lorna's gruff awkwardness, and at times, he speaks truth and wisdom beyond his years. When an opportunity to buy her grandmother's house comes up--the only place she has ever felt happy--Lorna is faced with the terms of a trust her mother left her: She must address the things in her life that have left her so bitter and make amends for them.
As she embarks on this journey through her life with Bean, her small Greek chorus, Lorna begins to realize that events that seemed ruined by her sister's addiction may not have happened as she remembers. And even if they did, her chance to make amends for them is freeing her from the guilt she has felt for her sister's troubles. She begins to accept that there is nothing she could have done to change the course of Kristen's life, but she can change the course of her own. And maybe, her grandmother's house is not the home she thinks it is.
Genre: General Fiction
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