Willow Trudeau is looking for the home she never had and for a father, Leon Ziemny, about whom she knows only his name. Abandoning college, she leaves California to journey to a deteriorating ethnic neighborhood in Indiana where she first encounters her grandfather, Walt, owner of a dying tavern, who’s just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The two of them forge an immediate bond, but she does not disclose her identity to him, or to her father Leon, who is in denial about his own father’s diagnosis. As Walt descends into dementia and the entire family is thrown into chaos, Willow—still concealing her identity from them—seems to be the only one who can provide the balm for Walt’s ailing soul, including his ongoing plea to return to a home that no longer exists.
THE LAST MOON BEFORE HOME is a tender, engrossing, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes humorous, story about looking for the home we all search for, in one way or another.