THIS YEAR IT WILL BE DIFFERENT
Collection of stories. In "A Typical Irish Christmas", a grieving New York widower heads for a holiday in Ireland and finds an unexpected destination not just for himself, but for a father and daughter at odds. The title story "This Year It Will Be Different" also delves into the emotions of a person at mid-life - a woman with a complacent husband and grown children who are entering a season that can forever alter her life, and theirs. In "Pulling Together", a teacher not yet out of her twenties sees her affair with a married man at a turning point as Christmas Eve approaches - and she may be off on a new direction with some unusual friends. And in the delightful tale "The Hard Core", the four most recalcitrant residents of a nursing home are left alone at Christmas with the owner's daughter in charge: the result is sure to be disaster - or the kind of life-affirming renewal that only the spirit of the season can bring.