From the jacket:
A worldwide sensation a year before publication, here is a remarkable young writer's lyrical first novel about the many shades of loss and family love.
From her first poignant sentences, Jenn Crowell beckons the reader into Gloria Burgess's private world. After a scant eight years of marriage, Gloria's beloved husband succumbs to leukemia, leaving her alone with a son to bring up in an adopted country. The madness of grief is a constant, voracious temptation she must withstand, for her child's sake if not her own.
To accomplish this, Gloria delves into the lessons from the past and her parents' failed relationship. Her father was forever inconsolable over his first dead love, her mother bitter at giving up her ambitions for a man incapable of loving her. Between her father's clinging, drowning despair and her mother's emotional abandonment is a balance that Gloria struggles to find. And eventually she discovers ways to reinvent herself, to find happiness once again, and to bring peace back to the tumult of her life.
Strikingly well written and eleganty structured, "Necessary Madness" is a powerful debut with both literary and commercial appeal. Crowell is already a master of prose and unstatement. With grace and assurance, she illustrates the timeless nature of wisdom and the tender path of survival. This fresh young voice resonates with a truth that will not fail to move the heart of any reader.

RELEASE NOTES:

Brought to the Meetup.

Picked up at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. TBR.

Released in a bag circulated to friends.