This is one of those books that changes your life forever. I am deeply grateful that I got a chance to read it, and I will recommend it to everyone I know.--Anita Shreve, author of
The Last Time They Met and
Fortune's Rocks: A Novel .
"Her struggle with the realities of breast cancer-and its treatment-is a story of fear, courage, loneliness, and redemption. It is one of the most moving and important books ever written about the extraordinary pressures the disease places not only on the victim, but on family and friends as well."--Michael Carlton,
Yankee Magazine "Songs from a Lead-Lined Room contains passages of unaffected loveliness, in particular Shea's reflections on her working-class hometown in central Massachusetts, a setting cozily familiar from her novels."--Amanda Heller,
The Boston Sunday Globe "When bad things happened to a talented, insightful, witty reporter and virtuoso novelist, her notes delivered a brilliant silver lining. I'm not the same person I was before reading
Songs from a Lead-Lined Room, Suzanne Strempek Shea's brave, honest, enthralling, darkly funny story. I couldn't put it down, and I'll never forget its lessons about friendship and good intentions gone awry. I've loved many books, but never before have I come away with the conviction that I've just read the one that's been missing from the world."--Elinor Lipman, author of
The Inn at Lake Devine and
The Dearly Departed