cover image A Real Emotional Girl: A Memoir of Grief, Depression, and Recovery

A Real Emotional Girl: A Memoir of Grief, Depression, and Recovery

Tanya Chernov. Skyhorse, $25.95 (336p) ISBN 978-1-61608-869-9

A daughter recounts her adored father's painful death from colon cancer in this earnest memoir. A former lawyer who became the director of a busy girls summer camp in Minong, Wis., Chernov's dad was an intensely loved, prank-playing leader who enlisted the help of his whole family%E2%80%94wife, two sons, and daughter Tanya%E2%80%94to help run the camp during the summer months. With his 1999 diagnosis of colon cancer at age 53, and hopes for recovery grown increasingly bleak after two years of treatment, Chernov found herself shuttling back and forth between her Tucson home and college in Tacoma, Wash., trying to figure out how to manage everything. In this engaging debut work (despite its awkward title), Chernov re-creates the emotional devastation wrought by her father's death, followed by a gradual realization of what was most valuable in their relationship. (Oct.)