The Possibilities - by Kaui Hart Hemmings (Paperback)

About the Book

Simon & Schuster Fiction Original Hardcover.

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants--a "funny, insightful, and unsentimental" (People, 4 stars) novel about a grieving mother and the shocking surprise that may help her reclaim her hold on life.In the idyllic ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado, Sarah St. John is reeling. Three months ago, her twenty-two-year-old son, Cully, died in an avalanche. Sarah's father, a retiree, tries to distract her from her grief with gadgets from the home shopping channel. Sarah's best friend offers life advice by venting details of her own messy divorce. Even Cully's father reemerges, stirring more emotions and confusion than Sarah needs. But Sarah feels she is facing the stages of grief--the anger, the sadness, the letting go--alone; she desperately wants to hear the swoosh of her son's ski pants, or watch him skateboard past her window. And one day a strange girl arrives on her doorstep. Unexpected and unexplained, she bears a secret from Cully that could change all of their lives forever. With wry wit and intuition, Kaui Hart Hemmings highlights the subtle poignancies of grief and relationships in this stunning look at people faced with impossible choices. Called "surprisingly entertaining" (The New York Times Book Review) and "familiar yet richly, astutely observant and reflective" (The Boston Globe), The Possibilities brilliantly portrays tragic ineffability with grace and hope.

Review Quotes

"Kaui Hart Hemmings' novel is a graceful, subtle primer on freedom-the means by which we free (and forgive) ourselves, our parents, and our children, as well as the almost unbearable getting-of-wisdom by which we free our beloved dead. The Possibilities is familiar to us, in all its wit and intelligence, because we know the characters. We are the characters." -Susanna Moore, author of The Life of Objects