I found this book interesting because it was written predominantly from a male perspective - in my experience this kind of story is more often told from the perspective of a woman.
Rudy, who is 54, wakes up one morning to find his wife has died in her sleep. They were very happily married and Rudy is devastated. He is also feeling guilty as he didn't hear her struggle in the night and was unable to revive her when he woke.
Rudy was previously downsized from his professional job and was working part time as a piano player at Nordstrom's. There he has developed a friendship with Bella, a Hungarian woman who sells watches. She is in the course of divorcing her drunken husband and is also no stranger to personal tragedy.
The couple slowly develops a relationship. But the book does not revolve around only that. We also learn of Rudy's depression and see how he copes with that (including through a brief hospitalization). Rudy's daughter who is also having marital problems, and his granddaughter, are also characters in the book. Finally, when a former co-worker confesses to murdering Rudy's wife, we see how he has to deal with the police investigation surrounding that.
There are several chapters which go back in time and we see Rudy's marriage, and Bella's, from their perspectives. This nicely rounds out the present day material.
An interesting book, though certainly not the best I've ever read.
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