-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
In this highly anticipated novel from the bestselling author of The Descendants, a grieving mother struggles to overcome her son's death, when a strange girl enters her life with a secret that changes them both forever.
Sarah St. John, a single mother, is reeling from grief: Three months ago, her twenty-one-year-old son, Cully, died in an avalanche near their home in the ski resort town of Breckenridge, Colorado.
As Sarah tries her best to go through the stages - the anger, the sadness, the letting go - she has trouble keeping her grief at bay and moving on with life. Her father, a retiree who has become addicted to QVC, urges Sarah to go back to work at Breckenridge's local morning show. Her best friend, a recent divorcee who always manages to say the wrong things, convinces Sarah to sort through Cully's belongings. Slowly, she comes to terms with a world without the swish of her son's ski pants or the rolling of his skateboard outside her window. Then a girl named Kit appears on Sarah's doorstep - and she's carrying Cully's child.
The Possibilities is a tender and darkly funny story about the fracturing and healing that takes place within a family after tragedy. Told in Kaui Hart Hemmings's unsentimental and refreshingly wry style - praised as "audaciously comic" by The New Yorker - this uplifting novel asks difficult questions about what we risk to keep our loved ones close.
"Starred Review. A grieving mother tries to make peace with her son's death in this wry and heartwarming second novel from the author of The Descendants." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. As she did in The Descendants (2007), Hemmings deftly deploys her idyllic setting, leavens tragedy with humor, avoids sentimentality, and offers characters whom readers will find very appealing." - Booklist
"Starred Review. Hemmings writes a piercing, empathetic story about parenthood and unfathomable heartbreak and manages to bring humor and hope to her characters. Emotionally complex and relatable to all, it will be particularly understandable to those who've experienced the inexplicable, devastating loss of a loved one." - Kirkus
"The book has some rambling, stream-of-consciousness moments...[but] despite these slight flaws, this is a strong second showing for readers who enjoy modern characters, some laughs, and a good cry." - Library Journal
This information about The Possibilities was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Kaui Hart Hemmings was born and raised in Hawaii. She has degrees from Colorado College and Sarah Lawrence and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. Her first novel, The Descendants, has been published in twenty other countries and was made into an Oscar Award-winning film directed by Alexander Payne and starring George Clooney. She lives in Hawaii.
If you liked The Possibilities, try these:
by Rufi Thorpe
Published 2025
A bold, laugh-out-loud funny, and heartwarming story about one young woman's attempt to navigate adulthood, new motherhood, and her meager bank account in our increasingly online world—from the PEN/Faulkner finalist and critically acclaimed author of The Knockout Queen.
by Jen Ferguson
Published 2024
In her remarkable second novel following her Governor General's Award-winning debut, The Summer of Bitter and Sweet, Jen Ferguson writes about the hurt of a life stuck in past tense, the hum of connections that cannot be severed, and one week in a small, snowy town that changes everything.
by Ashley C.. Ford
Published 2022
One of the most prominent voices of her generation debuts with an extraordinarily powerful memoir: the story of a childhood defined by the looming absence of her incarcerated father.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
