Hey, God? Yes, Charles: Conversations on Life, Loss and Love

In this heartfelt memoir and series of dialogues, recent widow Cooper copes with her husband's sudden death by imagining the conversations her larger-than-life spouse might be having with God: "I was done talking to God. Charles, as it turned out, was not." Cooper believes she overheard these snippets of Charles's conversations with God, chronicling them through her first year of widowhood in this witty, bittersweet collection. In the dialogues, Charles helplessly watches his wife go through the grieving process, remarking to God about everything from the comments made at his funeral (a best friend gave away the fact that Charles was a "commando sleeper") to the fact that "Becky" now takes his T-shirt to bed every night. Much of the book reads like a diary as Cooper speaks to her imagined Charles, showing the daily starts and stops in grieving the loss of a partner. The result is a cathartic journey into a husband's afterlife from the eyes of someone that shared his earthly love. (Nov.)