Life Expectancy by Alison Hughes
CBC Books | Posted: July 12, 2023 8:47 PM | Last Updated: July 14, 2023
How do you go on after making a life-altering discovery about yourself? After her Opportunity Class stages a play about her grandmother's famous novel, Abomination, Sophie St. John's suspicions that her family is keeping something from her are confirmed. While doing her Legal Studies homework she discovers a case, a lawsuit launched by her parents when she was born that reveals that Sophie has a serious disease, a reduced life expectancy, and that she might be very rich.
Faced with the reality that she may not have much time left, Sophie ponders what it means to really live and bravely decides to face the future on her own terms.
While Life Expectancy explores disability and dying, it is ultimately a story about love, meaning, and finding the courage to live fully in the face of uncertainty. (From DCB)
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Alison Hughes is a writer from Edmonton. She has written 20 books for children and young adults, including Fly and Hit the Ground Running, which was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text. Her writing has been shortlisted for the Writers' Union Short Prose Competition for Developing Writers, longlisted for the 2011 CBC Short Story Prize and shortlisted for the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize.