“If she dies, I'll die” are the words fifteen-year-old Mia Pearlman writes in her journal the night her mother is diagnosed with cancer. Twelve days later, Mia's mother is dead, and Mia, her older sister, and their father must find a way to live on in the face of sudden, unfathomable loss.

For Mia, this means getting through a funeral led by a rabbi who belongs in Las Vegas; dealing with a social worker who appears to have been educated at the local beauty academy; sharing “healthy heart” meals with her father, who seems to be seeing her for the first time; trying to relate to her sister, whose idea of fun is solving quadratic equations; and developing a crush on Cancer Guy, why is actually kind of cute. But mostly it means carrying the image of her mother with everywhere, because some kinds of love never die. Still. Even in grief there is the chance for new beginnings.

Poignant, funny, and hopeful, Cures for Heartbreak is Margo Rabb's unforgettable novel about love, loss, and a family's resilience.

 

MARCO RABB grew up in Queens , New York , and now lives in Brooklyn . Her stories have been published in the Atlantic Monthly, Zoetrope: All Story, Seventeen, Best New American Voices, New Stories from the South, New Eng-land Review, Glimmer Train Stories, One Story, and elsewhere, and have been broadcast on National Public Radio. She received the grand prize in the Zoetrope short story contest, first prize in the Atlantic Monthly fiction contest, prize in the American Fiction contest, and a PEN Syndicated Fiction Proiect Award. Visit her online at www.margorabb.com .