Dear Mike

Two hours and thirty-seven minutes.

That’s how long Mike has been gone when Jan Holland picks up the fancy Moleskine notebook her daughter’s froufrou therapist insisted would “help her process her grief.” As if a stupid notebook could fix the fact that Jan has no idea how to be a widow when she’s spent four decades being a wife.

What begins as a skeptical vent becomes a lifeline. Through letters that are by turns prickly, funny, and achingly honest, Jan navigates her messy first year, from medical bills arriving like a tsunami to Mike’s heartbreakingly empty chair at the dinner table. All the while, she shoulders a family left behind: a son struggling to stay sober, a daughter who manages grief like a project, and grandchildren who keep asking questions she doesn’t know how to answer.

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