'A Widow for One Year' traces the life of Ruth Cole, a character of deep complexity and contradictions. Set across three distinct periods beginning in 1958, we see Ruth evolve from a young girl on Long Island witnessing the ebbing passion of her parents, to an accomplished yet solitary author in 1990, and finally as a forty-one-year-old widow in 1995, on the cusp of newfound love. John Irving weaves a narrative that explores themes of loss, sexuality, and the indelible marks of time, crafting a story imbued with emotional potency and unexpected humor. The lives that intersect with Ruth's—from her wayward mother to her philandering father—render a richly textured tale that is as much about the inflexible persistence of grief as it is about the possibility of unexpected joy.