The Setting of the Sun

The Setting of the Sun takes place in a single day, as Anne (who is 95 years old) attends the wake, funeral and burial of her husband, her one true love, Tom. With tenderness, her daughter, Maggie, helps Anne with her confusion and sadness as her mind drifts between the past and present. Throughout the day, events elicit in Anne’s mind memories of her childhood and her life with Tom in the mill city of Lawrence, Massachusetts, and she relives wonderful moments of her sisterly love with her best friend, Annie. Meanwhile, Maggie grieves for her father while realizing that her mother, too, will soon die. After a family gathering, Anne returns home to face life without Tom. Allusions to a poem Anne wrote to Tom years earlier are sprinkled throughout the story. At the end of the novel is the poem - titled "The Setting of the Sun" - in which Anne expresses with simple eloquence the essence of true love -- and love’s power over death is realized. The Setting of the Sun will resonate with those who are caring for their elderly parents. Through Anne, The Setting of the Sun addresses with sensitivity and frankness what it feels like to be very old, and to be looking death straight in the eye.