Shelter Me

In the tradition of Marisa de los Santos and Anne Tyler comes a moving debut about a young mothers year of heartbreak, loss, and forgivenessand help that arrives from unexpected sources. Four months after her husbands death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husbandnow his last gift to her. As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrowmothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she cant release. Yet Janies selfimposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecactoting aunt; her bossy, overmanicured neighbor; her muffinbearing 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 otherseven those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.