It is an unusually warm day for early spring. Thirteen-year-old Nico and her sister Margaret are in a rowboat, floating on the lake and talking, as sisters do. Nico is looking forward to spending the summer with Margaret, who is about to head to college. Margaret, who is talented, admired, the perfect older sister. Nico's world comes to a grinding halt when Margaret drowns after diving from the boat to swim back to the family's house. Nico and her family are plunged into a world of grief, so heavy they can barely function. Margaret also left behind a boyfriend, Aaron, and he and Nico begin spending time together in an effort to both remember Margaret and overcome their grief. Only too late does Nico recognize Aaron's actions as misplaced grief, but she is unable, or unwilling, to extricate herself despite the warning signs.
Goldengrove is a heartbreaking but beautiful story about a family's loss and healing. Prose's writing is gorgeously lyrical and she rushes nothing, letting each character mourn and reenter the world in the own time and manner. Despite the young age of the protagonist, this is a conceptually sophisticated work filled with compassion and resonant, authentic emotions - a 'must read' for those like their fiction honest and true.
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