Between You and Us

November 20, 2023
A woman is given a do-over she didn’t ask for—and didn’t know she needed—in this sensitive, time-bending contemporary from Broekhuis (Here Goes Nothing). For months, Leona has been looking forward to a fancy dinner with her husband, David, to celebrate their 10-year anniversary. When she arrives at the restaurant, however, small signs indicate that something is awry, from the chilly silence between her and David to his unfamiliar haircut. It isn’t until they return home (to a stately Victorian Leona hasn’t seen in years) that she realizes she’s stepped into an alternate universe, in which David works for his wealthy father’s pharmaceutical company, and the couple is well-off, but seem to have an invisible rift dividing them. Leona decides to delay investigating how she ended up in this alternate world when she realizes her daughter Vera—who died at four months in a car crash a year earlier—is alive and well. Made privy to what her life with David might have been like if they’d made different choices, Leona searches for a way back to her former reality when it becomes clear it may be dangerous to stay in her new one. Broekhuis’s shifts between past and present are sometimes jarring, but she mostly makes up for it with perceptive renderings of the nuances of grief, the challenges of healing, and what it means to trust God’s will. There’s plenty to appreciate in this touching tale of loss and renewal.