Lily Waters is a spitfire magazine columnist raising her two children after her husband left her for a college student in his history class. And then he departed for London shortly after that--not seven weeks after her youngest child was born.
As the book opens, Lily is facing her 40th birthday with dread--along with her trademark humor. She also, as a writer, tends to see the bigger themes in life. But, to help her ring in her 40th year, her best friend of 20 years is determined to embarrass her with every "over the hill" trick in the book.
Michael, Lily's openly gay best friend, narrates half the book. He watches as shortly after this "huge" birthday in most people's lives, Lily gets a baseline mammogram and discovers she has cancer. Together, they assume they can weather this...just as Michael has assumed a lot of the co-parenting duties of Lily's sullen 16-year-old and baseball-loving 9-year-old. However, as things look bleaker, both friends begin to question life, love, sex, and death.
Eventually, Lily has to face the concept of declaring a guardian for her children when her ex seems both unfit and unwilling to relinquish his life in London. However, her trademark wry philosophy means she is far more prepared for whatever comes next than the people around her.
The book is told by both Lily and Michael...and woven throughout are her magazine columns, and his life's work, a novel. A story to make you laugh, make you cry…and make you want to read it again.
