A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do

Fromm (As Cool As I Am) pulls at the heart strings with the poignant tale of a father, who just having lost his wife in childbirth, must quickly learn to raise his infant daughter, Midge, alone. Trapped in the Montana fixer-upper he and his wife were renovating, new father Taz isolates himself from friends and family, struggling through late night feedings, dirty diapers, and the wrenching loss of his wife, Marnie. Her ghost haunts his thoughts, and his conversations with her are just as present as the ripped-up floor boards, unfinished bathroom, and demolished kitchen. A carpenter by trade, Taz can’t bring himself to continue working on their house, but he can’t leave it and move on, either. As the novel tracks Taz’s first two years as a single father, readers see him gradually awaken from the darkness; he begins restoring the old home again, forming new relationships with his late wife’s mother and his young, eccentric new babysitter, and eventually realizing he must find a way to build a new life for himself and his daughter. Full of gorgeous descriptions of the wild landscape of Montana, Fromm’s novel draws the reader in with a colorful cast of characters who bring hope and light to Taz’s life again. Fans of emotional family dramas will find much to love. (May)