A moving, unflinching novel that faces loss squarely and never loses hope.
After more than fifty years of marriage, Leon and Emma Miltenson have shaped their retirement from a well-worn routine: Monday breakfasts in the corner booth at Breaking Bread, grocery runs to Giant Eagle to debate the merits of canned soup, and all the other small rituals two people accumulate over a shared lifetime. Their plan to grow old together vanishes in an instant when Emma is killed in a tragic accident. Kendall Fulmer is a young boy trying to prove to his dad that he can handle any task. So when a phone call pulls his father away, Kendall keeps working on felling damaged ash trees by himself. The rain might be coming down, but eleven-year-old Kendall’s confidence grows until his chainsaw overheats, and he loses control. The boy is injured, but the crashing tree kills Emma Miltenson. Wracked with guilt, Kendall struggles to keep quiet about the accident while his father takes the fall. Leon’s daughter Janene is a struggling nurse who worked through COVID-19 and now is enduring the shocking loss of her mother, who had always been her main source of support. Leon’s best friend, Griffin, tries to be there for him while carrying his own losses and personal demons. And Leon meets the mysterious Calvin, a man who is grief-stricken and makes crosses to remember his son. Life becomes less about the accident than about what each of them does with the wreckage it leaves behind.
Grief takes many forms in David B. Seaburn’s heartrending novel of interconnected lives, Last Alive. Although the story follows a large cast, their personalities are distinct, and Seaburn keeps the shifts between them clear, so the multiple perspectives never blur together. The book is full of soul-searching conversations and tender scenes, and one standout moment happens when Kendall finally reveals his secret to his new friend Tyler. The boys stand back to back while Tyler pretends to be a priest, offering Kendall forgiveness. There’s something genuinely heartbreaking about watching a child carry adult-sized guilt and hand it to another child to help bear the burden. The story’s pacing is steady and grounded, keeping readers engaged as it moves through each person’s challenges. And for readers going through loss or family difficulty, the novel offers real comfort in the realistic way each character finds to cope. None of them heal by pulling away: Janene’s isolation costs her, while Griffin, Kendall, and Leon each start to recover only once someone else is let in. Calvin, having lived through his own loss years earlier, already knows that letting others in is what makes healing possible, and it’s that insight he passes on to Leon throughout the book. Written with a warm and kind tone, Last Alive is a moving, unflinching novel that faces loss squarely and never loses hope.
