The Duzy House of Mourning by Ka Hancock

THE DUZY HOUSE OF MOURNING is the compelling story of a young woman who survived an unthinkable accident the night she was born, an accident that claimed the life of her father, and forever altered her mother who sustained a traumatic brain injury.

The book opens 22 years later. January Duzinski has been raised by her Polish paternal grandparents and works as an embalmer in their mortuary. She’s a bit of an introvert, completely comfortable with the dead, completely brilliant (like her mother was) at the piano. And she has a very conflicted relationship with her non-verbal, disabled mother, Claire.

But January’s life is about to veer off its course with the arrival of one Oscar Thibodeau—attorney for her maternal grandmother, Rose Winston, a woman January has never met, a woman who is suddenly deceased. It seems there is a Steinway concert grand piano up for grabs…and anything else that might interest January.

Thus begins January’s reluctant journey into the incredible life of her mother. Through Claire’s diaries January is introduced to a strong, savvy, confident, enormously talented girl who disinherited herself from the wealth and trappings of a life she did not want. January is also made privy to a firsthand account of her parents’ love story, and the price Claire paid to be with her Polish undertaker. For the first time, January meets the father she has only known through her Duzinski grandparents.

What emerges is a deeper, more poignant understanding of the very complex question: What does love really look like?