Elizabeth Hughes’ Book Periscope

Middle aged white woman with glasses, a smile and blonde bangs
Elizabeth Hughes

Without Jenny by Mark Gunther

Barren tree on a hill against a blue background. Without Jenny and the author's name, Mark Gunther, are in white at the top.

Without Jenny is a bittersweet novel about the Jewish Community in San Francisco. It follows the Rosenberg family through their grieving process after a freak accident took the life of their daughter Jenny. Joy and Jenny were on their way to have a mother/daughter outing when Joy pulls across the street from a small store to buy a water for her daughter. While in the store she hears a horrible crash and finds that tons of scaffolding has crushed her car with Jenny inside. The story follows how hard it is to grieve the death of one child while trying to be there emotionally for their younger son. It also shows how the grieving of a child can not only tear a family apart but how hard it is to stay together. It also lets us know how the grieving process is very personal, how a parent never “gets over it” but learns how to cope and learn to live again.

Mark Gunther’s Without Jenny is available here.