The Last Good Year

When Nora returns to her childhood home in Birch Hollow, it is to help care for her father, Daniel, a retired chemistry teacher slowly losing his mind to dementia. For twenty-two years, Nora has kept her distance, nursing old wounds and holding onto a quiet fury over her mother's death.

But as Daniel's cognitive decline accelerates—forgetting Nora’s name even as he perfectly recites the periodic table—she is forced to confront the long-hidden secrets of her family's past. Alongside her stepmother, Carol, Nora begins to uncover the truth about her parents' marriage, the depth of her father’s grief, and the quiet acts of devotion that kept their family afloat.

The Last Good Year is a heart-wrenching yet hopeful exploration of what it means to love someone through a door that no longer opens on command, and finding the courage to rebuild what is broken.