Local and debut author Kimberly Young joins Books Inc. Palo Alto for a riveting celebration of her new novel In the Event of Death, a heartfelt and deeply enthralling story about life, death, and everything in between.
When the Recession crushes their splashy event business in Silicon Valley, Liz Becker and Gabbi Rossi realize that parties are on hold—but funerals must go on.
Planning a memorial with flowers, music, and food isn’t that different from a wedding, right? But Liz has had a crippling fear of death since losing her younger sister in a childhood tragedy. Knowing her husband and twin sons depend on her income, she reluctantly agrees to produce end-of-life events. As Gabbi promised, the money starts rolling in. When an old real estate tycoon hires them to plan his “after party,” Liz finds an unlikely mentor. Just as things are looking up, she learns that someone she loves has a serious illness. Death planning gets personal.
“In this poignant story, Kimberly Young explores one woman’s struggle to come to terms with a childhood trauma that threatens to cripple her just when her family needs her the most. In the Event of Death will challenge the way you think about death, and make you laugh and cry while you rejoice in a family’s resilience.”
—Tracey Lange, New York Times bestselling author of We Are the Brennans
Born in the Midwest and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kimberly Young received her MFA from Stanford University where she was a Wallace Stegner Creative Writing Fellow. She began her career as an advertising copywriter and marketing consultant and worked with clients ranging from startups to Apple. In the Event of Death is her debut novel, set in the suburbs of Silicon Valley. Kim and her husband have three grown children and split their time between California and the mountains of Idaho.
