The World Without You

A grieving family gathers on the Fourth of July weekend to honor the memory of their journalist son, Leo Frankel, who was killed in Iraq the previous year. They are confronted with old hurts as well as many dark secrets that threaten to tear the fragile threads that are just barely holding the family together. Leo's mother Marilyn, entrenched in grief, drops a bombshell when she announces that she's leaving her husband David, who has moved on from his mourning and still holds a grudge against Leo for his decision to go to Iraq and leave his wife and toddler behind. Marilyn's desire to discover what actually happened to Leo has become an obsession: she will risk everything to find the truth. Meanwhile, Leo's widow Thisbe hasn't come to terms with how falling in love with a new man will change her dynamic with the family, and she struggles with how best to let them know without causing further despair. Clarissa, Leo's eldest sibling, desperately wants to conceive, a compulsion that threatens her marriage. Personal quarrels and long-held animosity between Leo's siblings plague the family and are only intensified by his memorial, while his sister Noelle grapples with the fact that she was the last to see Leo alive during a trip to Jerusalem. Quarrels, battles, and emotional outbursts continue to distract from the real reason the family has come together, which is to honor their son, brother, father, and husband. Will this dysfunctional family reunion bring them closer together or drive them further apart? Based on the acclaimed novel by Joshua Henkin.