If This Were Fiction : A Love Story in Essays

Winner of the 2023 Book of the Year Award from Chicago Writers Association Finalist for the 2023 Heartland Booksellers Award  Silver Winner for the 2022 Foreword INDIES Book AwardIf This Were Fiction is a love story-for Jill Christman’s long-ago fiancÉ, who died young in a car accident; for her children; for her husband, Mark; and ultimately, for herself. In this collection, Christman takes on the wide range of situations and landscapes she encountered on her journey from wild child through wounded teen to mother, teacher, writer, and wife. In these pages there are fatal accidents and miraculous births; a grief pilgrimage that takes Christman to jungles, volcanoes, and caves in Central America; and meditations on everything from sexual trauma and the more benign accidents of childhood to gun violence, indoor cycling, unlikely romance, and even a ghost or two. Playing like a lively mixtape in both subject and style, If This Were Fiction focuses an open-hearted, frequently funny, clear-eyed feminist lens on Christman’s first fifty years and sends out a message of love, power, and hope.