Five Days: A Novel
Radiology technician Laura Warren has begun to lose her professional detachment, falling apart emotionally whenever she detects a malignancy. She knows part of the problem is her 23-year marriage, which has become increasingly difficult ever since her husband, Dan, lost his job; however, she has also come to realize she has never fulfilled her potential and could have gone on to medical school if she had possessed more self-confidence and parental support. Full of regret and incredibly lonely, she attends a radiology conference in Boston and meets a graying, married insurance salesman who turns out to be smart, sensitive, and just as lonely as she is. Their passionate affair gives her the impetus to remake her life and to embrace change instead of clinging to stifling routine. The prolific Kennedy (The Moment, 2011) explores his favored themes of mortality, love, and loss in this fluidly written tale. Deftly depicting how certain choices can unexpectedly narrow a life, instead of expanding it, Kennedy has much to say about the nature of happiness, the difficulty of change, and the great divide between obligation and desire. --Joanne Wilkinson--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.