From May to December is a book that grew on me as I read it and lingered with me long after I was done. It is the story of women, all very different but very human women. Each one is fighting her own demons, some from within a physical prison, two from within their own personal prisons.

The sisters, Jen and Lotty, have never been close. As children Jen felt ignored, pushed aside by her sister's illnesses. Now, as adults, they come together again but the reemergence of Lotty's cancer will either strengthen or destroy their attempts at sisterhood. Jen has a past of which she is not proud but she is trying to create a new life for herself. When Lotty asks her to help with a prison writing program she has begun at a local women's prison, Jen hesitates but, with many doubts, agrees to help. Together they work with a group of women to write and produce a production of one act plays.

The book is also told in the alternating story of four women, each one in prison for a different crime. The strength of this book is its portrayal of these women, their pasts, their presents and their dreams of a future. MacEnulty gives a voice to the thousands of women incarcerated all over the nation. These women have broken the law but the stories behind the crimes are powerful and moving.

But this is not a book of weak women, desperation or lives at their end. Instead it is a book full of hope, of the strength and beginnings. There is strong emotion through out the book but it is not a sappy, mushy, 'poor pitiful us' emotion. Instead MacEnulty's strong writing ability brings it above the emotion to form a full bodied story that leaves a lasting impression. She is able to lead readers into the lives of her characters by slowing revealing their stories, unfolding the details one by one to open a panorama of survival and substance. She draws tears and cheers for her women through deft plotting and in depth character development, a triumph of heart blended with talent. A winning combination.