Intentional: a novel

In a compelling story of life after the death of a loved one by suicide, this novel is a powerful exploration of how family and friends cope with loss. Grief, with its long, unrelenting fingers, pokes into secrets-recent and long forgotten-as the survivors discover themselves braver and more compassionate then they could have imagined.

When Dust Steward, an ardent environmentalist, shot herself in early October 2012, her husband, Robert, was running for US Senate, her best friend, Lily, was having an affair, and her daughter, Grace, was a normal self-absorbed thirteen-year-old. Dust left no note, so her friends and family can only guess why she did it. The novel explores how grief can stir up forgotten sorrows, and how the death of someone we love can make other losses almost insignificant. The story revolves around how friends and family cope and find hope after tragedy.

Lynn Arbor's novel paints an absorbing portrait of the devastation wrought by suicide. Loss beyond imaging leads to hope, and then-for many characters in this fast reading novel-brave new beginnings.