Novelist Burgess's memoir of her idyllic 15-year marriage cut short by the death of her husband from cancer proves startling, memorable and deeply moving. Burgess (Loose Threads
) moves backward in time before arriving at husband Ken's shattering diagnosis of lung cancer in November 2002. In the late 1980s, at age 31, she quit her job in government and moved from Washington, D.C., to Spokane, not far from her mother's eastern Washington farm. Burgess was determined to change her life and within a year had embarked on a fairy tale romance with an executive at the company she worked for, Ken Grunzweig, a twice-widowed (one of his wives was shockingly murdered) jet-setter 19 years older with a teenage daughter. Two children, a busy, prosperous life and several moves followed, until the family relocated back to Spokane before illness struck Ken. With gentle, deliberate strokes, Burgess portrays her love for her devoted, athletic husband and the seven months of surgery, radiation and chemotherapy that led to his crushing physical debilitation. Her narrative grows increasingly engrossing, yet difficult to read, as Ken, the fighter, is forced to constantly face death. Burgess's journey possesses bravery and open-eyed clarity. (Aug.)
