Grace Period

After 25 years, how do you rebuild your life?

“What happens when your younger partner dies on her way to your retirement party? ‘Retirement, or grief?’ the hapless, endearing protagonist of Grace Period must keep asking herself as she attempts to navigate her strange new life. That might not sound like the setup for an extremely funny novel, but trust me, in Elisabeth Nonas’ skilled hands, it is. I didn’t want this book to end, but of course...it had to. I just hope Nonas will write a sequel. “ —Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

“This brave, utterly beautiful, book takes us onto the road all of us at some time must travel. We become Hannah’s closest companions on her journey through memories of Grace, the love of her life, a wandering pathway that leads her to integrate profound loss with ongoing life. “ —Katherine V. Forest, author of Delafield

“If it’s possible for a novel about loss to be both meditative and laugh-out-loud funny, Grace Period is it. Elisabeth Nonas expertly navigates around the dark space where a beloved used to be until she lands us in the place where memory makes it possible to go on.” —Jewelle Gomez, author of The Gilda Stories

"GRACE PERIOD assembles a story of loss, of grief, of life as beads on a necklace - each small triumph, echoing memory, and unexpected revelation a gleaming jewel, strung together with warmth and soul." —Liz Tigelaar, television writer/producer, Little Fires Everywhere and Tiny Beautiful Things

"Elisabeth Nonas has fashioned a heart-breaking yet oddly delightful and funny story about one of life's most poignant passages. This is unpredictable storytelling at its best—the unfolding of a life passage that every reader will understand and find both painfully wistful and hilariously entertaining. The author takes us inside the bewildered, mixed-up, and romantic mind of a woman who is thrown heart first into the chaotic universe we all traverse. I couldn't put it down." —Philip Himberg, former executive director, MacDowell

Hannah's wife has died unexpectedly.

Just as 70-year-old writing professor Hannah Greene walks into her retirement party, she's called to the ER because Grace, her wife of 25 years, has been in what turns out to be a fatal car accident. This was definitely not part of the plan the two had for their lives, especially since Grace was ten years younger than Hannah. The plan had been for Hannah to join her art history professor wife on a sabbatical trip to Europe. Grace would do research, and Hannah would figure out what she wanted to do in her retirement.

How does an independent, feisty lesbian adjust to both her suddenly widowed and newly retired life? How can she survive the loss of the spouse who statistically should have survived her?

Grace Period tackles these questions head-on in an intimate, witty portrayal of a woman grappling with the new and unexpected turn her life has taken. It is a tale of love, loss, and survival.

Elisabeth Nonas, the author of three published novels, has written several screenplays as well as short stories, magazine articles, and essays. She coauthored with Simon LeVay the nonfiction "City of Friends: A Portrait of the Gay and Lesbian Community in America." The author taught screenwriting and writing for emerging media at Ithaca College for twenty-five years. Nonas's three novels focused on how lesbians form community and create family. Given that her first book appeared forty years ago when she was in her mid-30s, she clearly has different concerns now as she ages and her life continues to unfold. These were what sparked "Grace Period."Originally from New York City, she lives in Ithaca, NY, with her spouse, founding publisher and editor of Firebrand Books, Nancy K. Bereano.