Threshold - by Deborah Cummins (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Deborah Cummins is "a stranger to death"--until, in 2007, she learns that her brother, Joe, is dying. In the months that follow, as Joe's health declines, Deborah confronts hidden truths in an attempt to make sense of her brother's death while he's still alive--truths that, in retrospect, where perhaps not so hidden after all.

But before she's able to fully grasp her brother's worsening condition, Deborah is confronted with another family crisis: between complications following a recent surgery and her heartbreak over her son's condition, Deborah's mother's health is waning as well. After the death of her brother at only forty-five years old, her mother's death shortly follows, and Deborah must navigate grief compounded.

Spanning the country from a small town in Maine to the sprawling metropolises of Chicago and Phoenix, Threshold skillfully and poignantly examines familial relationships between child, parent, and siblings, providing evocative portraits of each.

About the Author

From 2001 to 2005, she was the Board Chair of the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, and more recently, from 2016 to 2023, she served as Board President of the Maine Writers & Publishers Alliance. In 2014, Deborah and her husband, Bob, relocated from Chicago to Maine, dividing their time between Portland and Deer Isle.

She passed away in the summer of 2023.