On the Town (Sept./Oct. 2013)
“Book Talk: Nan Cuba, novelist and professor”
“I remember writing that first line of the first chapter, ‘Please help me say the unsayable: My first life ended when my brother Sam committed suicide.’ I wrote that about half-way through the process. What I said to myself was, this book is going to be a eulogy. And while I was writing it, I was thinking that if I were able to wrestle with Sam and Sarah’s family and the motivations behind their behavior, it would in some way help me reconcile with the fact that my brother had made the same choice as Sam. Just like Sarah was trying to figure it out, I was trying to figure it out. But the odd thing is, now that I finished it, I no longer think that that’s what the book is about.”