This is such a beautiful book. It is bittersweet, unusual in terms of narrator and how reality and fantasy subtly interweave, and a very romantic male/male love story on top of it all. Written from the point of view of a twelve-year-old girl, it encompasses her great-grandfather’s life, and their family history, shared in the form of the stories he tells her. And Autumn is all about the stories.

Autumn loves her Great-Pop Tommy with all her heart, but, like all children, she is initially very selfish in her love. When he has a stroke and ends up in a coma, everyone seems to agree this is it, that it is time for him to go. But Autumn doesn’t agree. She loves him, and she wants to hear more stories about him and Roy, the man he loved over fifty years ago. She is convinced that if the adults would only let her see him, she is sure she can make him wake up, make him return to the living. Only when she finally does get to visit him in the hospital, it seems that reality doesn’t work the way she so desperately wants it to work.

At this point the story shifts location into a mysterious Valley and Autumn discovers she has a real fight on her hands. And as determined as she is to keep Great-Pop Tommy with her in the land of the living, there is someone else in the Valley who will fight equally hard to stop Great-Pop Tommy from ever leaving the Valley. Ultimately, Autumn has to search her heart for what is more important, and in the process, she grows up a little and learns what true love is really all about.

If you like bittersweet stories that contain a large dose of reality, yet manage to end well, if you don’t mind reality and fantasy intermingling for the purpose of a great story that just needs too be told, and if you’re looking for an imaginative, very sweet, and touching story about family and love, then you will probably like this novel. I was pulled in from the beginning, and think it is absolutely brilliant. ( )