Complicated loss, maternal secrets, and newfound hope are blanketed by Chicago snow in Taylor Hahn's tenderhearted novel A Home for the Holidays. It's nearing Christmas when wedding singer Mel Hart's mother dies after an enduring problem with alcohol at the same time that Mel's situationship with a bandmate ends. Reeling from the complexities of her grief, Mel has barely begun her "crash course in death logistics" when a woman claiming to be her mother's estranged best friend appears, asking for a chance to tell Mel about the version of her mother she never knew. A hesitant but aching Mel agrees.
Within Barb's yellow house, which smells "like holiday Yankee candles and baking and a hint of mildew," Mel discovers more than old photo albums and stories about the talented woman her mother was. A connection with Barb's son and blossoming friendships with Barb's daughter and grandson prompt Mel to wonder if her loss means being truly alone--or if there could be a different sort of life ahead.
A Home for the Holidays is well-balanced and lovely. Hahn (The Lifestyle) writes funny and heartwarming scenes as deftly as she renders the illogical nature of grief (as when Mel replies "But I have a Christmas tree with me" to the doctor on the phone who informs her of her mother's death) and how it drives humans to search for answers. Those seeking some heft in their seasonal reading may find comfort in the truism underpinning Hahn's novel: that the home one needs now might not be the home one has always known, and that honoring both is possible--for the holidays and beyond. --Kristen Coates, editor and freelance reviewer