Blast from the Past: The Key to Creativity

When pianist Emily Solomon breaks her wrist, her career seems over before it's begun.  But that was more than a decade ago, when Emily was young and foolish and let her passion for music and bandmate Rob rule her life.  Or so she tells herself as a now-respectable therapist and doctor's wife dedicated to helping others.  Then something happens to threaten the new life she's so carefully curated, forcing her to ask herself if it's more painful to hold on to the past or a facade of perfection.

That's the gist of Jill Santopolo's Everything After.  Steeped in the same strong emotions that make The Light We Lost so moving, this unforgettable story hinges on excerpts from Emily's college journal.  No-holds-barred and heartbreaking, this deeply personal narrative invites us to share Emily's dreams as well as her despair when they begin to crumble.  Through it, we come to understand Emily's polar opposite present -- and the chink that spreads in her well-earned armor when the ghosts of her old life come back to haunt her.

Poignant and bittersweet, Everything After examines what it means to be honest, both with ourselves and the people we love.  

Because we can't begin to know where we're going until we face the music of where we've been.