Dogged by recent unhappiness, Elizabeth has fled to England for a month with her friend Lynn. Her husband, Henry, is ensconced in Elizabeth's sister's Vermont summer house struggling with a writing project he can't seem to bring under control.

A year earlier, his brother-in-law, Fitz, dropped dead in the same house. His ghost is everywhere, especially so after Henry inadvertantly finds Fitz's journal stored in the computer.

Assailed by images of the past, Henry retreats to the woods surrounding the house for hard physical exercise--anything to avoid the multiple agonies of writing and memory. The disruptive arrival of another summer resident further embroils Henry in "the whole Fitz thing," until his unanticipated immersion in the other man's life leads to the crucial breakthrough he's been seeking.

Deftly written in several distinct voices, This Time Last Year is a novel about resolution and redemption. Wise and humorous, it offers a poignant meditation on the human condition that will echo in the reader's mind for years to come.