The Widow's Season (2009) This book was amazing! I have reread the ending twice to grasp it. It is the story of Sarah, an English professor who wants nothing more than to be a mother, and her husband David who is a well liked doctor on a college campus. After several miscarriages, Sarah and David start to fall apart. While on a kayak trip, David goes missing in a storm. While his personal belongings and kayak are recovered, David's body never is. Desperate to go on with her life, Sarah gives in and has a memorial service. But she starts to see David and starts to question, did he really die in the storm? When he appears in their front yard on Halloween night, Sarah invites him in. David tells her his tale. Brodie does an amazing job of luring the readers into the lifes of these characters. The ending snapped the story closed like a steel door and left me asking, "Did that really happen?" Her story is so rich you don't see the ending coming until it right before you.It is a wonderful read. And it will stay with me for a long time.And if you read this book, contact the author, Laura Brodie. Our book club Skyped with her and it was wonderful! She provided lots of details for us and answered our questions. She is so down to earth. I encourage all book clubs to connect with her to have the same experience. Our group hasn't rallied around a book like this in a long time and it was great to see it! The Widow's Season by Laura Brodie opens with Sarah seeing her husband at the grocery store. There's just one slight hitch, he's missing and presumed drowned. Sarah does her best to assume it's just her grief playing tricks on her until he shows up at her doorstep as if nothing had happened.Until David shows up at their home, I was considering putting the book aside. Sarah's grief after seventeen years of marriage is understandable but the first chapter or is completely focused on her grief. I began to worry that the book would just become a long pity party for Sarah.David's appearance though, shakes things up. He and Sarah act as is it's completely normal for him to appear after so long. He gives a lengthy explanation about his absence, his lack of money, why he hasn't tried to contact her or why he doesn't have his ID. Under all these apparently simple answers there are little clues, things not quite right, that add a new layer of understanding.Had the book reintroduced David sooner, I would have rated the book five stars. I'm taking one off for the slow, melodramatic opening.