The Obituary Writer by Ann Hood

In 1960, Claire is a housewife with a young daughter. When a neighborhood boy disappears, she starts thinking about how unhappy she is in her marriage. She begins an affair with a man and believes that she is pregnant with his baby. Claire's story is alternated with that of Vivien, who in 1919, is still mourning the disappearance of her lover in the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Vivien after all these years still holds out hope that David, the love of her life, is suffering from amnesia and still alive. Vivien passes the time writing moving and intimate obituaries for people who have lost their loved ones.  The Obituary Writer tells the story of these two women from different generations whose lives intersect and shows how their confessions to each other set them free.  For readers who enjoyed Sandra Dallas' The Bride's House and Ellen Baker's Keeping the House.