The Mourners' Bench
By Susan Dodd
William Morrow, $24
ISBN 0688157998

Twenty-one-year-old Leandra was estranged from her sister and had never flown on an airplane or been outside her native North Carolina more than once. That, however, didn't keep her from flying to Massachusetts immediately after her sister, Pamela, asked for her help during a difficult pregnancy. Little did Leandra's much-older brother-in-law, William, know when he first saw her at the airport that he would enter into a brief but passionate love affair with her. Little did both of them know that tragedy would soon follow.

At the beginning of The Mourners' Bench, Leandra is living alone in her house on the coast of North Carolina, mending dolls by vocation and still grieving the deaths of her sister and her sister's baby. William, or "Wim," is dying of cancer and is traveling down South to see Leandra for the first time in ten years. Though he has remarried, he has decided that he is going to spend the rest of his short time left with Leandra -- that is, if she will let him.

Dodd demonstrates her mastery of the English language by telling this powerful story in two distinct voices: the literary and decidedly high-brow tone of Wim and the wise and just plain wise-cracking southern style of Leandra. She shows the simple and strong ways that two seemingly incompatible people can find the consolation and love they need within each other.

Through the comfort Dodd conjures with telling details -- the preparation of a simple meal, the glow from stars overhead, the feel of a rose-colored comforter when you're bone-tired -- she also shows that, ultimately, the connections that most reward are the ones that need no extra adornment. Loss and tragedy are unavoidable in life, but through it all -- as this mature, poignant novel proves -- the chance to love and be loved is reassuringly near.

Deb Saine is a reviewer in Rock Hill, South Carolina.