Vendor
	Fletcher Agency Yona Levin
Original language
English
Categories
Narrative theme: Death, grief, loss Children’s / Teenage fiction: Romance, love & relationships stories Children’s / Teenage fiction: Family & home stories

A YEAR TO THE DAY

Robin Benway

National Book Award winning author Robin Benway returns with a story of love, loss, sisterhood, and how we survive grief.

Elenore (Leo) and Nina are as close as sisters can be, until everything is torn apart in a terrible car accident Nina doesn't survive. Adding to Leo's grief at the loss of her best friend is that she can't remember anything about the accident, and the only person who does, Nina's boyfriend East, is refusing to help.

Told in reverse chronological order, from one year after Nina's death to the night before it occurs, A Year to the Day orbits around a secret that changes everything. Acutely emotional, achingly heartfelt, and downright masterful, at the story's core is a powerful message: that our loved ones never really leave us – they are always present, like the sun, even when we can’t see it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robin Benway is the acclaimed author of Emmy & Oliver, the Also Known As series; Audrey, Wait!; and The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June. Her books have been published in seventeen languages, have won international awards, and have been bestsellers in several countries. Formerly a bookseller and book publicist, she lives in Los Angeles. You can visit her at www.robinbenway.com.

Available products
Book Published 2022-05-01 by HarperCollins Children's

Comments

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.
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FAR FROM THE TREE:
North America / HarperCollins Children’s
UK / Simon & Schuster
Germany / Magellan
Netherlands / De Fontein
Poland / Jaguar

EMMY & OLIVER:
North America / Harpercollins Children’s
UK / Simon & Schuster
Brazil / Globo
Germany / Magellan
France Nathan / Jeunesse
Dutch / de Fontein
Bulgaria / PAN
Turkey / Pegasus
Poland / Pascal
Latin America / Ediciones Edhasa

A young woman in Southern California struggles with the agony of her sister’s death from a car accident.

Sixteen-year-old Leo’s favorite person was her older sister, Nina, whose outspoken, funny persona endeared her to many. In a series of chronologically reversed vignettes over the course of the year since Nina’s death, ending with one that takes place just hours before the accident that takes her life, Benway presents a nuanced, realistic portrait of the losses experienced by those closest to Nina—Leo; their mother, father, and stepmother; and Nina’s boyfriend, East. The novel’s structure is an interesting and mostly successful narrative technique: While the movement of time can be a little difficult to track, the dates that preface each chapter, labeled in terms of where they fall in relation to the accident, help to keep the timeline from becoming too confusing so readers can focus on the moving exploration of grief in all its unpredictable messiness. Authentic, often sarcastically funny dialogue and texts bring a lightness and grim humor to interactions Leo has with East and others. Her divorced parents and stepmother are poignantly developed secondary characters, and the intricate dynamics of Leo’s relationships with each of them underscore the ripple effect that occurs in families following a tragic loss. All the main characters seem to be White and middle class.

An intelligent, compassionate examination of a family enduring a nightmare
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"Ultimately, “A Year to the Day” is a moving exploration of how the mind both punishes and protects, and a reminder of how fortunate we are to love and be loved, even if only for a short time."
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