By Leslie Pietrzyk
William Morrow
Hardcover

Death is inevitable.

It will come whether people want it to or not. What happens, though, when it’s your own mother and not only did she want it to happen but she parked her car on a set of railroad tracks to ensure it?

A Year and a Day Excerpt This was one of those birthdays that was supposed to mean something: Boom, you’re sixteen, so now you can drive...A mother throws her car keys out the window and everything is different forever after. “You missed my birthday, you won’t see me graduate from high school, you won’t be at my wedding, and my babies will have only one grandmother. Why didn’t you think of that when you were on these tracks?” I rolled down the car window. The lingering night air smelled heavy, like wet grass. She wouldn’t make my prom dress or wedding cake, would never send me letters at college or accept my collect calls. How could I stand it? ©2004 Leslie Pietrzyk Published with permission from William Morrow

Without a word. Without any clear indication that she was even contemplating such an action.

She always seemed so happy...didn’t she? Loved to cook, made plans for the summer, played games and dressed up.

Why?

Why becomes a larger-than-life word when fifteen-year-old Alice Martin tries to understand and cope with her mother’s suicide. Her outlook on life, as well as that of her brother’s, changes dramatically with that one event.

Lacking maternal guidance, they are forced to make choices, explore life and love on their own. Run away or stay...give up or go on. A constant internal battle.

Hearing her mother’s voice does not help the situation any. Alice expects her mother to answer her questions, explain things, give her advice. But a mother who barely understood how to cope with things herself is in no position to provide just the right words for an emotionally overloaded daughter.

So Alice deals in any way she can, which sometimes is by not dealing at all. Her life has become a quest for answers, for a truth that may not even exist and may not matter anyway.

Bookworm's Briefing
A Year and a Day is an intensely moving account of a girl suddenly and unexpectedly consumed with questions. Delving into this story is like enveloping oneself in a cloak colored by a well-rounded emotional spectrum.

Denial, desolation, sparks of hope and heartfelt longing are experienced by the reader as much as by the protagonist. Leslie Pietrzyk’s research into suicide and its aftereffects breeds credibility and ignites an inner contemplation even for those who have not been touched by it personally.