I was lulled into this story by the sights, sounds, and smells of a weeklong family vacation in a cottage near a Cape Cod beach: delicious seafood, sunscreen, crying and happy children, the salty air, salt on skin, swimming in the waves, sand underfoot. This seemed like the perfect August book: husband and wife welcoming adult children for a traditional summer week on the Cape, one bringing along the longtime girlfriend, grandparents joining later in the week. The parents are the sandwich generation, worried about launching young adults and caring for aging parents, all while reassessing their own life choices, and how to ease into older age themselves. The transition of menopause, a time to reflect on struggles of the past, while watching their adult children making those first choices, partners and children, themselves.

What I did not expect were two issues. The parents’ daughter is gay, something the parents were mostly aware of all along, accepted with great ease. This was not a big deal, and consistent with the characters, who seem to be generally non-religious, and accepting of whatever choices their children make: red flag number one for the reader. The second issue was a surprise for me, in particular the way it was handled. Here I will be a spoiler, which I normally never do. My reason is because I wish to warn fellow readers with values similar to my own— if I knew this, I probably would have passed on this book. The author uses this plot to present the issue of abortion, and provide supportive, enlightening food for thought for fellow believers.

The mother learns by accident that her son’s girlfriend is pregnant. They are two adults, the son in a well-paid profession, the girlfriend on her way to completing a Ph.D. They have a long, solid relationship. The woman reveals she has yet to discuss this with Jaime, the father of her baby. The mother asks if she plans to keep the baby, and she says she doesn’t know. This is accepted casually and with support for either choice. Is the mother concerned that this is the fate of her first grandchild, life or death? Not in the least, it would appear. The revelation later triggers a further revelation between mother and lesbian daughter, a sensitive woman who feels her mother is carrying a large emotional burden. The mother reveals that prior to her miscarriage, an attempt for a third child, she had an abortion. The father accidentally overhears their conversation, and it is discovered that the mother had the abortion while never telling him, not for twenty years together.

The abortion was a choice made when the mother felt overwhelmed with a four year old son and an almost 1 year old daughter, and she feared that she could not emotionally handle another baby. She may well have been suffering a post-partum depression. The shock for her is that she should be suffering such grief and regret about her act, when she is so accepting of the choice of abortion for whomever wants one. A further irony is that this woman learns from her father that all of his family died in concentration camps during World War II, while he and his siblings were sent to America alone, to be spared. Does the author not see the very comparison she has made, between the horrific Holocaust of Jews, and the holocaust of unborn babies, on average one million babies per year for the past fifty years?

The mother is shocked at her deep sense of guilt, perplexed by her response of secrecy from her husband all these years. Perhaps, on some level, her conscience detects that she has killed her own child? This is certainly not explored, as the husband is upset at her longstanding falsehood, but assures her he would have accepted any choice she made, as it is hers to make, not his. He essentially disavows all part in the decision, not recognizing any responsibility for this new life they made. This the wife accepts as a sign of what a good husband he is, while she still feels residual anger that it all falls to her to take and carry responsibility.

I will not spoil the very end— but does that matter? The casual, selfish attitude toward the choice to murder one’s own child, all in the midst of self-proclaimed baby love and baby yearning, is very hard to bear. If you are pro-life, this review is meant to warn you about this novel. It is no comfortable summer read, exploring the burdens of each generation as we pass through life, caring for each other. It is a firm support for selectively unburdening ourselves of inconvenient, poorly timed babies, then wondering why that should be so emotionally difficult. This novel truly shows how far we have fallen, as a society and culture, from valuing, upholding, and caring for the life we are blessed to receive.