Death and Other Interruptions

Jennifer Shore is four months away from her wedding when she opens the door to find two policemen bearing news that will completely tear down the life she's built. Her fiancé, Al Stefford, has been killed in an explosion in the school where he teaches. In case that isn't tragic enough, Al has been named the prime suspect in the bombing. He might have been her gentle Al, but to the world he is a Muslim terrorist with an Iranian father.

As her job gives her an indefinite "leave of absence," as the FBI investigates Al and everyone around him, and as Jen herself becomes the focus of every media outlet in the country, Jennifer's world is deconstructed and reassembled into a completely unfamiliar routine. Her mother, a proud Jewish woman, had all but disowned her when Al engaged; now she becomes her main pillar of support. Her sister, a distant and successful lawyer-slash-mother of two, puts together a lawsuit for Jen against everyone defaming Al. Her friends all leave her, except for one, who becomes her constant ally in this struggle that is her life. Jennifer's life is consumed by the absence of Al and everything that entails, when she discovers the next disruption in her world: She is pregnant.

Her emotions raw and erratic, Jen relents to her mother's suggestions that she join a support group. With their help, and with the strength she begins to draw from her mother, her friend, and finally herself, Jennifer discovers that she might actually be able to live a life that is whole even as it is broken.