2016 USA Best Book Awards: General Fiction, Finalist
2016 USA Best Book Awards: Literary Fiction, Finalist
Broken by their unorthodox Midwestern childhood, sisters Catherine, Anne, and Jessica Mathers search for love, acceptance, and worth – often in the most unlikely places.
Catherine, the oldest of the Mathers sisters, is an English professor battling breast cancer with Cytoxan, red wine, and profanity. Anne is a wife and stay-at-home mother of two, struggling to make ends meet in a suburban existence that both suffocates and confounds her. Jessica, the youngest by ten years and estranged – by choice – from her family, is an exotic dancer who feels safer on stage than in a relationship. But when the sisters are faced with an incomprehensible loss, they are forced to reevaluate themselves, their damaged bonds, and their fragile future.
Overwhelmed by their shared and sacred grief, Catherine, Anne, and Jessica must now face the questions that have been their silent, lifelong companions: How long must the sins of the parents define the lives of the children? When do the choices we make become ours and ours alone? What does it take to begin anew?
Parting Gifts illuminates one highly dysfunctional family’s tentative, desperate crawl toward a life of meaning and worth.
Author: Katrina Anne Willis
Publication Date: April 19, 2017
