Release Date: May 11, 2021

About The Book:

Cheryl Strayed’s Wild meets Katherine Center’s How to Walk Away in Kathleen Basi’s debut novel about an unconventional road trip and what it means to honor the ones we love.

It’s one year after the death of her husband and twin teenagers. Miriam Tedesco has lost faith in humanity and herself. When a bouquet of flowers that her husband usually sends her on their anniversary shows up at her work place, she completely unravels. With the help of her best friend, she realizes that it’s time to move past these deaths. Step one is not even cleaning out her family’s possessions, but just to take inventory starting with her daughter’s room. But when she opens up her daughter’s computer, she stumbles across a program written by her daughter to embark on an automated cross country road trip, for her and her husband to take when they would have begun their empty-nesting in a few more months.

Seeing and hearing the video clips of her kids embedded in the program, Miriam is determined to take this trip for her children. Armed with her husband’s guitar, her daughter’s cello, and her son’s unfinished piano sonata, she embarks on a musical pilgrimage to grieve the family she fears she never loved enough. Along the way she meets a young, pregnant hitchhiker Dicey whose boisterous and spunky attitude reminds Miriam of her own daughter and forces her to look harder at what she had rather than what she’s lost.

Tornadoes, impromptu concerts, and an unlikely friendship… whether she’s prepared for it or not, Miriam’s world is coming back to life. But as she struggles to keep her focus on the reason she initially set out on this journey, she has to confront the possibility that the best way to honor her family may be to accept the truths she never wanted to face.

Hopeful, honest, and tender, A Song for the Road is about courage, vulnerability, and forgiveness, even of yourself, when it really matters.

Review

Miriam is still grieving for her family. Her husband and her teenage twins were killed over a year ago. But, she has yet to face it, let alone move on with her life. Then one day she nearly loses her job and she knows must come to terms with her grief.

Miriam starts to clean out her daughter’s room and she comes across a trip her children had planned for her and her husband. It is a cross country road trip. Miriam thinks this is just the thing to help her with her grief and her past.

I was so heartbroken and grief-stricken for Miriam. She is a character which pulls you into a story and keeps you there. She is flawed and has made some huge mistakes but her heart is in the right place.

Then there is a hitchhiker named Dicey which Miriam picks up at her first stop on the trip. Dicey is very much pregnant and she is hiding a secret. Dicey is feisty but she is just what Miriam needs at the perfect time.

This is a story about past regrets and about self renewal. It is about living with the loss life and overcoming grief.

Need a book about life and love….THIS IS IT!

I received this novel from the author for a honest review.

About The Author:

Author and liturgical composer Kathleen M. Basi is mother to three active boys (read that: always breaking something) and one chromosomally-gifted daughter. A proud native of flyover country and an honest-to-goodness farm girl (as in cattle, hogs, chickens, grain bins and a combine), she spent her childhood climbing trees, jumping off hay bales and chasing cattle back into their pasture when they broke through fences. (But she never once tipped a cow.)

Road trips are familiar territory for her, as she took several 3-week RV trips with her grandparents. She saw more national parks in her first 10 years than many people see in their entire childhood, and she loves exploring new places. (Especially the food.)

Her degrees are in flute performance, and she has been involved in music for Catholic worship since she was ten years old. She’s been writing stories even longer than that. (School bus. First grade. Orphan Annie fanfic.) She believes the written word and the sung note should make the world a better place. That doesn’t mean pretending ugliness doesn’t exist. The world is messy, and pretending otherwise just makes it harder for everyone. She aspires to acknowledge the reality of the world while pointing toward what makes it most beautiful.

Her nonfiction has appeared in a number of magazines, Chicken Soup for the Soul and on NPR’s All Things Considered. Her fiction is represented by Sonali Chanchani and Claudia Cross, and her novel, A SONG FOR THE ROAD, is scheduled for debut in May 2021 with Alcove Press. https://kathleenbasi.com/novels/

Social Media and Other Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kathleenmbasi

Instagram: https://instagram.com/kathleenbasi?igshid=ot84rc4j343r 

Twitter: @kathleenmbasi

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4270863.Kathleen_M_Basi

Book Blurbs:

“An emotionally complex story about reconciling love with loss, and the healing power of music…I loved every scene from the first to the last.” —Barbara Claypole White, bestselling author of The Perfect Son and The Promise Between Us

“A nuanced grief journey whose final moments will push [our heroine] to face the depths of her shame and loss—and, scarier, the love that may help her emerge stronger on the other side. A truly panoramic view of human frailty and resilience.”—Kathryn Craft, award-winning author of The Far End of Happy and The Art of Falling

“A heart achingly beautiful book about grief and guilt, family and friendship, love and loss. Readers will be swept away with the lyrical descriptions and charmed by the characters. I wanted to race through the book to see what happened at the same time that I wanted to savor every page.”—Orly Konig, author of The Distance Home and Carousel Beach