Ebook: 308 pages
Genre: Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Publisher: Lake Union, August 2026,
Source: NetGalley
First Sentence: When Astra was nine and travelling with her mother to Chicago, the passenger in front of them had a panic attack.
Review Quote: “This isn’t a book that demands your attention with dramatic twists; it earns it through emotional honesty.” — Manhattan Book Review
My Opinion:
Not sure now to be honest why I decided to read 'When She Was Ours', probably should not have done so as it was not for me.
A complicated story about a family that are navigating grief. Thea the mother is terminally ill and coming to terms with her imminent death. We learn how her adult daughters Astra and Phoebe cope, or rather don't as the plot lurches from one chaotic moment to the next.
A character driven novel about relationships and one that I believe the author wanted to write due to her own life experience. She certainly writes from the heart with regard to the death of a parent.
This certainly seems to appeal to many readers, judging by the reviews, unfortunately not to me.
With thanks to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the opportunity to read and review.
Précis Courtesy of Goodreads:
Thea Erickson, a renowned surgeon, is filled with both joy and grief as her family gathers at their home on a summer night in 1995. Her elder daughter Phoebe is getting married, but even the happiness of the day feels bittersweet, as Thea grapples with a terminal cancer diagnosis. She worries she won’t be around to support her younger daughter Astra, who’s still in college, but even Thea cannot foresee what is to come—a terrible accident the night of the wedding that changes Astra’s life forever.
In a last-ditch effort to protect her family, Thea arranges a secret meeting with an old family friend and extracts a promise that will reverberate long after she’s gone.
Years after her mother’s death, Astra has moved forward with a career and relationship, but she still struggles with her grief. When a man reaches out to her and Phoebe, offering a window into their mother’s past, Astra must make a choice, and her decision forces her to face what it means to love someone after they’re gone, who we decide to forgive, and how families reckon with the past.
Author Profile:
Photo and Bio Courtesy of Goodreads
Anna Nordberg is an author, journalist and culture writer whose essays have appeared in Slate magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. She spent a lot of her childhood writing novels with a number 2 pencil on yellow legal pads. She actually still has these novels.
In 2015, she started writing a memoir about becoming a mother without her mom, who died when Anna was 17. This memoir never found a home, but its themes—how loss unfolds throughout a life, how we carry the memory of someone forward, the surprising legacy of grief—are all themes in Anna's debut novel, When She Was Ours, out August 1.
Anna grew up in New York City and now lives in San Francisco with her husband, son and daughter, and English cocker spaniel, Guinness (who also loves books). She loves muddling through middle school with her kids, trying to remember what the formula for the circumference of a circle is, and rereading books like Tuck Everlasting and A Wrinkle in Time. Favorite books she has read to her kids: The Hobbit, The Dark is Rising, The Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Bridge to Terabithia.
It was always her dream to write a novel after watching her mother write one on an ancient Apple IIC when Anna was eight years old. When She Was Ours is dedicated to her.
Photographs and Biographical Information courtesy of the following sites:
Goodreads Profile. Author's Official Website. Amazon Author Page