A Watershed Year
Written by Susan Schoenberger
Narrated by Amy McFadden
4/5
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About this audiobook
What it means to be a mother, what it takes to save a life.
Lucy never confessed her love to her best friend, Harlan, before he passed away. Two months after his funeral, she is haunted by the power of things left unsaid. But then she receives the first of his e-mails arranged to be sent after his death. So begins the year that everything changes—Lucy’s watershed year.
In an e-mail, Harlan says something that consumes her: he’s certain Lucy is destined for motherhood. In her grief, Lucy suddenly rediscovers hope, journeying to Russia to adopt a four-year-old boy. When she meets her son, Mat, for the first time, she realizes he is also mending a wounded heart and is just as lost as she is. Together, they learn to trust, each helping the other to heal.
But just as they’re welcoming their new normal, Mat’s father comes to America to reclaim his son, revealing the truth about Mat’s past that might shatter Lucy’s fragile little family forever.
Susan Schoenberger’s breathtaking and powerful story of love, loss, redemption, and what it means to be a mother will leave you in awe as Lucy, in the depths of her greatest despair, somehow finds her greatest joy and embraces the beauty of second chances.
Susan Schoenberger
Susan Schoenberger is the author of the award-winning debut novel A Watershed Year. Before turning her attention to writing fiction, she worked as a journalist and copyeditor for many years, most recently at The Hartford Courant and The Baltimore Sun. She currently serves as the director of communications at Hartford Seminary and teaches writing classes at the Mark Twain House in Hartford. She lives in West Hartford, Connecticut, with her husband and three children.
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Reviews for A Watershed Year
18 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A quick read.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5As I began reading this novel, I was immediately pulled into the story about Lucy and her best friend Harlan, not just by the moving story of Harlan's battle with cancer and Lucy's pending adoption of a 4 year old Russian orphan, but more so by the wonderful prose. I usually read the first chapter of any new Kindle fiction release. Very few grab me like this one did. Halfway through the story I sent a message to the author telling her that her work reminded me somewhat of Anne Tyler, particularly AN ACCIDENTAL TOURIST. But it also reminds me of great nineteenth century novels, when writing seemed to be more alive and beautiful, more caringly crafted. This book won a 5 star rating from Midwest Book Review. Susan Schoenberger also won the gold medal in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition for this book. In reading A WATERSHED YEAR, I am left with much more confidence and enthusiasm than I had before about the future of Amercian Literature. I eagerly look forward to her next work.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5People, this is not a little book. It’s 320 pages long. I started reading it at 9:30pm thinking I’d get a few chapters in. Next thing I knew I was closing the book and looking at my clock where the time of 4:30am was looking at me with accusation. I haven’t stayed up like that to read a book in one setting, or I should say, to read an adult book in one setting, in… never.I was simply blown away by this story. Susan Schoenberger flawlessly moves between the past and present, connecting the story of Harlan’s death to Lucy’s life and the decisions being made. Add into the equation the realistic portrayal of the difficulties of adopting, especially from another country, the struggles of dating and the coping of grief from unfulfilled love and you have a knockout of a story. And in spite of all these elements, not once did I feel overwhelmed, or that there was too much stuff going on for the story to be effective.I wept and rejoiced with Lucy, I fell in love with Mat, I grieved for Harlan and felt the sting experienced by Louis as Lucy struggled to adapt to her new life.If you are looking for a book that will knock your socks off and grab you by the shoulders and shake you until you cry, this is it. By far, one of the best books I’ve read this year.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5When someone dies, it seems there are always things left to say. The ones left behind want to pick up a phone and tell their loved one something only to realize anew that the person is gone. But what if the same is true for the one who has died? What if there was more to say but there wasn't time to say it? What if those things that stayed unsaid could be said and could change the course of a life? A Watershed Year imagines just that scenario in a wonderful and credible way.Lucy McVie has spent the past year of her life caring for her beloved friend Harlan as he fights cancer. Now a 38 year old college religion professor with an affinity for the saints, Lucy has known Harlan since they were in graduate school. She has also secretly been in love with him almost from the moment they met and so she thinks nothing of giving up time to care for him as he goes through treatment and then dies. After Harlan's death, Lucy must pick up the pieces of her neglected life. And then she receives an e-mail from Harlan that changes everything. He set up a program to send Lucy pre-written e-mails once a month starting several months after his death because he hasn't told her everything; he had more to say. The first e-mail hits on one of Lucy's unspoken, long-held wishes: to become a mother. Harlan tells her that he is certain that she will be a mother someday and that she will in fact be wonderful at it.Once the e-mail opens Lucy to the possibility, she starts to make her way down the path to adopting. Things start to fall into place as she finds an agency specializing in Russian adoptions and is fast tracked to adopt 4 year old Mat whose eyes melt Lucy's heart when she sees his picture. At the same time, a colleague shows an interest in her romantically and her teaching career is only just hanging on by a thread. With so much going on in her life, it is not surprising that Lucy chooses to ignore the warning signs that everything may not be above board with the adoption. As in so much of her life, when she commits her heart, she does it fully and without reservation but also without understanding the emotional repercussions of such a commitment.Lucy's year after losing Harlan is indeed a watershed year for her. She learns about herself and her capacity for love. She makes some tough decisions; some that bring her joy and some that bring her sadness. She might not yet be as strong as Harlan says she can be but she struggles through and comes out stronger for it. As a character, she is lovely and realistic. The secondary characters are less fleshed out but this is, after all, Lucy's watershed year and so the focus is fittingly on her. The monthly e-mails from Harlan act as the catalyst for her adopting Mat but they also help her to come to a better understanding of who she really is inside, the person for whom Harlan cared so deeply. And the flashbacks to her relationship with Harlan offer a sweet glimpse into the past, helping to round out and explain Lucy as a character but also offering insight into the core nature of their realtionship.Schoenberger has written a deeply moving tale, a wonderful and rich novel, one that packs many different emotional punches. Touching on grief and love and motherhood, she has created a true and touching story. Adoption is not easy. In fact, it is fraught with frustration, uncertainty, and hopelessness, even after Lucy brings Mat home. Grief is not simple. It is consuming and sneaky and constant. Love is not immediate or safe or perfect. It is hard won but all the sweeter for that. All of these things and more are true and Schoenberger has shown them to be so beautifully.