DANCING ON BROKEN GLASS (Ka Hancock)

What can I say about this novel?  I feel like my emotions have been shredded and scattered into the wind over and over again.  Ka Hancock's powerful story left me drained, yet weirdly and freshly hopeful about life choices and death.

Lucy and Mickey are madly in love, completely committed to each other and to a marriage made fragile by bipolar disorder and cancer. Years before, just days before he was killed in the line of duty, Lucy's police officer father promised his then 5-year-old daughter that there are three things that are true about death: that it is not the end, that it doesn't hurt, and that if you are not afraid you can watch for it and be ready.  Lucy soon sees death, a comforting, feminine presence, and understands that she is there for her father, not for her, not yet.  Twelve years later, when Lucy is 17, death comes for Lucy's mother as well in the form of breast cancer, which had also claimed Lucy's grandmother and aunt.  Lucy and her sisters are left to face life together, wondering what the future holds for them.

When Mickey was 12 years old his severely depressed mother took her own life and soon after he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Struggling to manage his illness over the years, Mickey is a successful club owner by the age of 29, when he falls in love with Lucy.  They decide to marry despite the trepidation of Lucy's sisters, Priscilla and Lil, choosing to live and love, dancing on broken glass with each other despite the terrible possibilities that lurk in the genes that eventually betray them.

I am trying not to say too much about what happens to Lucy and Mickey as their story progresses because this  is a book that you should feel on your own as you read it.  The two tell their own stories and their devotion to each other shines through on each page, as does the anguish they face when forced to choose between two impossible paths.  This is a love story, a tear-jerker, a learning experience.  I confess that I feel more confident about life and possibilities after reading Dancing on Broken Glass.  Bravo, Ms. Hancock!