Finding a Way

by Diane Simmons

In Finding a Way, Diane Simmons chronicles a family navigating loss. Told from various perspectives, this series of connected flashes finds words where so many cannot. The often indescribable is distilled in a way that is fresh and full of deep emotional understanding. This debut collection is both delicate and impactful, and the stories within are among the rare that will move any reader.
—Santino Prinzi, author of There’s Something Macrocosmic About All of This

Poignant, joyful, heartbreaking and ultimately uplifting. It touched my heart.
—Sarah Hilary

What gives the book its power is the writer’s commitment to the everyday. Without a hint of melodrama, Diane Simmons shows how ordinary life is altered, and made strange, by the death of a loved one. I was moved beyond words by this fine, modest, under-stated and perceptive book.
—David Swann, author of The Privilege of Rain

A brilliantly specific exploration of grief, rich in emotional detail.
—Meg Pokrass, author of Alligators At Night

I absolutely loved this collection and cared deeply for the characters and their journeys. It made me smile. It made me cry. It made me feel a lot of things. I am sure this accomplished, intelligent, absorbing read will resonate with a wide readership.
—Emily Devane

Genres: Flash Fiction

81 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 8, 2019

About the author

DIANE SIMMONS is a British author who lives in the west country. She is a co-director of National Flash Fiction Day and a former director of the UK Flash Fiction Festival. She has been a reader for the international Bath Short Story Award and a judge for several flash competitions, including Flash 500, New Zealand’s Micro Madness, NFFD Micro Fiction Competition, and many Flash Fiction Festival competitions. Widely published and anthologised, she has been placed in numerous short story and flash competitions. She is the author of four novellas-in-flash: 'Finding a Way', (Ad Hoc Fiction), 'An Inheritance' (V. Press), 'A Tricky Dance' (Alien Buddha Press) & 'William Prichard & Co' (Arroyo Seco Press). All her novellas are available from Amazon or from her website: www.dianesimmons.co.uk

Reviews

[Sophie van Llewyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional book on loss, grief, and coping. On the importance of family, and of having someone to lean on when the unimaginable happens. The flashes that make up this collection are written from multiple points of view, and with a huge delicacy and understanding of the human psyche. A wonderful, poignant book overall that will move you to tears.

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really beautifully written. I so appreciate Simmons' approach to telling this heartbreaking story. All her moments and details are so masterfully chosen. This form, in Simmons' hands, managed to carry meaning and weight and resonance well beyond its brevity. Unforgettable and highly recommended.

[Jeanette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read Diane’s stories over the years and always been struck by her ability to evoke situations and emotions in clear, direct prose. That skill is evident here. A book about grief inspired by personal circumstances could easily become mawkish and self-indulgent. That certainly isn’t the case here. The flash fictions in this linked collection are a powerful and unsentimental evocation of a family living with the sudden loss of an adult daughter. Each flash is firmly rooted in the everyday, offering a window into the family’s different experiences of grief. Told in four different voices the collected stories convey that there isn’t a single way of grieving and that there isn’t a direct path through grief. Flash fiction as a form demands an outstanding final sentence and Diane delivers on that score every time. There were times when those sentences made me catch my breath.


And, yes, there were places I cried but I came away with the sense of a warm, connected and loving family discovering ways to survive their devastating loss.

[Alison · Rating 5 out of 5]

An outstanding collection of flash fiction on the theme of grief. Parents mourn their child, a brother struggles with the death of his sister, a young husband is bewildered by the loss of his wife. In less skilful hands this would be overwhelming but Diane Simmons strikes just the right note and the journey the reader takes is both illuminating and surprisingly uplifting. She writes about the everyday ache, the awkwardness of others, the small details that people forget but she doesn’t forget the moments of laughter, the relief of friendship, the love that survives. This is a grounded collection of eminently readable and relatable stories, tiny little nuggets of truth and hard won wisdom. There are stand out individual pieces but, for me, the power and heart of this collection comes from reading it as a whole as this family navigate their way through the aftermath of loss. It’s a beautiful book, inside and out (I really love the cover!) and I applaud this book for its courage and honesty.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was blown away by this collection of flash fiction pieces. I guess you would call it a novella-in-flash. It's very rare that a book or a writer touches my emotions in this way. I was moved to tears. I chuckled. I smiled. I identified. This narrative explores the scope of the three years following the death of Becky from stomach cancer at the age of 21. The story is told from four different viewpoints - her mother's, her father's, her brother's and her husband of only nine days. The writing isn't remotely mawkish or self-pitying. It's telling it how it is. Grief takes many twists and turns and Diane accurately portrays how it impacts on day-to-day life. Finding A Way is strangely uplifting and positive. I would recommend it to anyone who has lost someone close as part of their therapy.

[Ross Jeffery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think it’s safe to say flash fiction collections are a somewhat rare commodity. And unless you’re immersed in the world of flash – both as a reader and writer – it can be difficult to find collections that truly explore the different ways in which flash can be done. Of course, you can stumble across gorgeous flash fiction collections that embody various stories through thinly linked themes, however the beauty of ‘Finding A Way’ is that Simmons works with the form and connects it together. Flash is short, that’s the point, and it’s a joy to read a collection that takes moments of the everyday and ties them to create a piece that feels truly whole.

Published by AdHoc Fiction, a ‘short short fiction press’, ‘Finding a Way’ is perhaps more a chronicle of grief than a mere collection of loss. Death is in abundance, yet where such themes can become convoluted, getting knotted up in a realm of heavy melodrama that would make the scriptwriters of EastEnders blush, Simmons navigates it with a deft touch.

Told from various points of view – Liz, Sam, Christopher, Jake – each tangled in the web of 21-year-old Becky’s death, the flashes take us from May 2015 to September 2018. The snapshots of life explored with the longevity of the years allows us to travel with the characters as they navigate the grey areas of grief and all its facets. Because that’s what grief is – grey, confusing, absent of conclusion, directionless and sometimes awful with little end in sight. And in some cases, more often than not, grief never really ends.

For those of us who’ve experienced loss – death specifically, and I imagine there is many, you’ll understand just how complex it can be. Simmons understands this too. The characters come to life in such ways that you feel like they could be your next-door neighbour – you, even, because she gives them the ability to form complex emotions about the complex situation. There’s no simple statement of ‘I’m sad because the situation says I should be and here’s why’, there’s more – the anger between mother and son over routine, the strength of a marriage that’s experienced the loss of a child, there’s a husband trying to move on and the heartache that brings to all those around him. It ripples throughout the collection, and we observe from up close.

‘Finding a Way’ explores the everyday elements of loss – the flashes deftly told by Simmons, with touches on the familial without ever becoming heavy handed. Simmons doesn’t offer her characters the answers and it works all the better for it. There’s mileage in her characters too. A testament to a wonderful writer who knows when to give detail and when to hold back.

‘Finding a Way’ is a neat collection, enjoyable as it is emotional.

[Emma Timpany · Rating 5 out of 5]

A woman is throwing her collection of precious jewellery – an opal ring, a jade bracelet, a gold chain - into a river. But why? So begins the first story in ‘Finding A Way’, a collection of flash fiction exploring a family’s grief in the aftermath of the untimely death of a loved one.

Diane Simmons is an immensely talented and accomplished writer. The apparent simplicity of the stories and the pared backed language Diane uses makes their impact on the reader all the greater. Each word here is chosen with the utmost care; sentence by sentence, with skill and sensitivity, they cumulatively create a heart-breaking memorial to a beloved daughter. The intense, concise form of flash fiction suits the work perfectly. By slicing away the unnecessary, breathing space is created around the many emotional truths contained within, allowing them to resonate and linger long in the mind.

‘At Peace’, a work of fewer than 60 words, and ‘A Wedding Feast’ are both perfectly formed and utterly devastating. ‘Another Chance’ is a brilliant piece, bringing to light a fierce emotional truth about what our body knows even before our mind is aware of it. Grief has many facets and is ever changing, ever renewing itself, as life for those living through this hardest of losses goes on relentlessly.

In ‘Closing the Door’, Simmons writes, ‘His grandad was a teacup man. But it was a mug he used for his last ever drink. He washed it up afterwards, of course.’ In this story and ‘In Control’ another death is addressed. What is outstanding in these pieces is the subtle understanding of the pathos, and even humour, which can emerge in the darkest of moments.

The book closes with ‘A Prize-Giving’, a story about generosity and the recognition of excellence. It made me hope that this exceptional book receives the acclaim it deserves.

[Joe Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know what to expect from ‘Finding a Way’ until I began reading it, but the concept became clear within a few pages. This is an exploration of grief, presented as a series of about 50 distinct, but narratively connected, pieces of flash fiction. The story is revealed through four perspectives, in a mixture of first and third person narratives, but primarily it concerns two parents in the aftermath of losing their 21-year-old daughter, Becky, to cancer.

I met the author, quite briefly, earlier this year, and know little about her background, but given that she has dedicated the book to the “memory of my daughter”, I assume that it is largely based on her own experience. Even without that dedication, it would be clear that this is a story told from a position of authenticity. The author understands how it feels to have these experiences, and anyone who has been through grief (and most of us inevitably have), especially following the death of someone relatively young, will recognise these episodes and emotions.

It is all, most importantly, in the detail. The way a question is framed, the way memories surface unexpectedly, the sudden reminders that someone who could, in other circumstances, be here, is not. These combine to provide us with a touching and moving narrative. It’s a tearjerker, yes, but it’s never over-sentimental, and there’s never any hint that the writer is doing everything they can to push all the emotional buttons. More than anything else, it’s a very natural and beautifully realised series of observations about human vulnerability, in all its forms, and I highly recommend it.

[Ali Bacon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though I had heard several extracts from Diane Simmons Finding a Way and both enjoyed and admired them, I was still hesitant to embark on the book as a whole. Flash fiction is an intense affair at the best of times and the prospect of a whole collection about grief did feel daunting. We have all taken journeys of this kind and although we go back there from time to time, we might not want to follow in another’s footsteps. So having intended only to ‘dip in’ I was surprised to find I read it from start to finish in the space of a few days and found it rewarding as well as profoundly moving.
In this collection four characters are given a voice – mother father brother and husband of the girl who died. While empathising most with the mother’s situation (so many casual cruelties inflicted by both well-meaning and thoughtless friends) I found the teenage brother’s story particularly touching in the rawness of its anguish and his inability to process what had happened. Eventually of course there is laughter as well as anger and sorrow, because that’s what happens and Diane Simmons tells it how it is. Most of all, the use of multiple viewpoints avoid any sense of untrammelled emotion and build up a picture not just of fractured lives but of the girl who connected them. The story as a whole is harrowing but the end result is a triumph for the power of storytelling in this most concise of genres. For me Finding a Way succeeds in celebrating a life as well as a reflecting on its loss.

[Fiona J Mackintosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I prepared myself with many tissues for reading Diane Simmons’ linked flash collection, Finding A Way, but found I didn’t use as many as I expected. Not because this isn’t an emotionally affecting tale – it very much is – but because it’s ultimately a hopeful book, as summed up in its title. It expresses emotions deeper than tears – fortitude, resilience, the human capacity for survival and even joy after a terrible loss.
Finding A Way is the story of a family after the death of Becky, a young woman on the cusp of her adult life, told from the differing perspectives of the four people most intimately affected – her mother, father, brother, and young husband. These people are real, relatable people, and their different journeys through grief are depicted with stark honesty. And we get to see them through each other’s eyes, how they can be obsessive, stoic, vulnerable, or angry, but there is always love in those perspectives.
I did need the tissues several times – for Jake, Becky’s husband, scrolling through his texts in Thailand, hoping against hope to hear from Becky (“Processing”). For Christopher, Becky’s father, having to deal with a clueless colleague who thinks two years is ancient history (“Over It”). For Sam, Becky’s younger brother, frustrated at his mother nagging him to eat because she’s afraid of losing him too (“Choices”). And especially “Another Chance” in which the mother, Liz, wrestles with a deep desire to have another daughter. “To try harder this time to keep my child alive.”
Diane Simmons has also succeeded brilliantly in ensuring that each individual stand-alone flash flows seamlessly into the next to create a full and satisfying narrative. The care and technical mastery required to do this is considerable, and I take my hat off to her. This gentle, aching, masterly collection with its beautifully crafted ending will stay with me for a long time.

[Tracy Fells · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding a Way is the debut collection of Flash Fiction by Diane Simmons. The majority of these stories are 1-2 pages in length, tiny pearls that string together to form a chronological narrative taking us through the two years following the death of Becky: daughter, sister and wife (of nine days) to the four narrators. I doubt there are few readers who’ve never experienced grief, but most of us couldn’t contemplate losing a child, making this a heart breaking read at times. I cried a lot but neither could I leave the world of Liz and Christopher (Becky’s parents) and finished this in one sitting as I found myself totally immersed in Simmons’s prose. Impressively this is a true collection and each story can be read on its own or as part of a longer arc.

The stories take us through a difficult journey and show honestly the path that grief takes you down, and yet there is so much love resonating throughout this collection showing how a family can tentatively rebuild their world beyond tragedy. I particularly admired how these stories honestly showed the difficult scenarios (sometimes even comic) of facing the questions of others. How do you answer the innocent ‘have you any kids?’ when your beloved daughter has died of cancer? It shows how grief changes but never fades over time, and portrays complex emotions through the ordinary situations of everyday life. Ultimately, it left me uplifted because I believed all the characters were facing the future together.

[Steviepuffin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a powerful story. Not least because the narrative voice is so genuine. The book (a novella in flash) deals with a very difficult subject, a subject if handled incorrectly, can quickly descend into either an exercise in self-pity or something so dark and grey and miserable that the reader might stop reading altogether.
But this book does neither of those things. In fact, it does the opposite. It brings hope and light and and positively and above all, it brings truth. There's a real truth to it. You get the impression that you are in the hands of someone who knows what they are talking about and, just as importantly, knows how to tell others what it's like.
And it's not just Simmons' ability to tell a story that's impressive, it's the form in which the she chooses to tell it. Flash fiction, as anyone who has ever tried to write it will tell you, is a tricky form to master. It's a cross between poetry and the short story, which means economy and clarity and the ability to make every single word earn its keep, is vital. And that's also what Simmons excels at. She knows her subject and she knows her craft and she brings both of those things expertly together in this book.
I did think I'd make it to the last page without crying, but I that didn't happen. In the end the story got me. But don't be put off by a few tears, as the front cover of Finding A Way says, this book is 'ultimately uplifting...' And so it is.

[Karen Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put off reading Finding a Way for a few days after I’d bought it. A whole collection about grief – wouldn’t that be too much? Just depressing?
Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. Finding a way to deal with grief, not to hide it or to pretend to ‘get over it’ drives this story. It’s a superb collection of flashes, told through the eyes of parents who’ve lost a daughter, a brother who’s lost a sister, a man who’s lost his young wife, each character bringing a new perspective to how we interpret and deal with grief.
There is great sadness, but there is also love, anger, laughter, frustration, regret – all the emotions we feel when we lose someone so special. And in the end there is a way – a way to remember and celebrate the life lost.
Diane Simmons has a very light touch given such a hard subject. There is nothing melodramatic, nothing overwrought here. There is an honesty in these beautifully written stories, and while, yes, some made me cry, others brought humour and some a new understanding of how to deal with grief.
It’s an excellent collection and one I know I will read again.

[Susmita Bhattacharya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started to read Finding a Way on a train journey, and quickly realised that I had to somehow control my tears before it became unmanageable. I thought I'd stop, and wait until I reached my hotel to read it when I was on my own. But I couldn't stop reading it. I cried, I smiled, I nodded in agreement and also felt so utterly sad for the characters dealing with the grief of losing their daughter to cancer. This novella in flash is told from the perspectives of the parents, the teenage brother and the husband, and how they negotiate their way through life without their loved one. There is sadness but there is also hope, humour and a way of really speaking to the reader about grief and loss. A must read.

[Alva · Rating 5 out of 5]

Grief is such a personal thing. When we try to describe it to others we run the risk of being misunderstood, but in Finding a Way, Diane Simmons has created a channel through which she brings readers on a journey through grief and loss. We understand, we empathise, we feel, and we come to know the depth of the personal loss. It is a true talent to get this across in words.
Finding a Way is a beautifully told story, a series of connected flash pieces, of love, family, and memories of one who died before her time.

[Amanda Huggins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Simmons writes with deceptive simplicity about complex emotions. This collection navigates a sea of loss which is so vast, so devastating, that it is incomprehensible to most of us. The writing is assured and deft, and the work as a whole is skilfully crafted. A heartbreaking and poignant story - yet there is hope, humour, resilience, and even joy. A powerful and starkly honest portrayal of grief.

[Nod Ghosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant study into how grief affects a family in novella-in-flash form. While the views depicted reflect only those of the protagonists who tell the story: Liz, Christopher, Sam and Jake, the authenticity of the responses is raw and real.

This book should be available via a prescription on the NHS.

[Bronwen Griffiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diane Simmons explores both the extraordinary and ordinary nature of grief in this novella-in-flash. Each story works as a whole, but the collection takes us through the ups and downs of grief with raw power.

[F.J. Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a deep, emotional and heart-wrenching book that gets to the heart of grief in a way that stays with you.

[J Rumsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honest, open and surprisingly uplifting.

[Damhnait Monaghan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A poignant flash fiction collection on the theme of grief. In understated but powerful prose, Diane Simmons explores the impact of a young woman’s untimely death on her parents, brother, and husband. Everyday occurrences in a family’s life are experienced through the prism of grief; we also share the private pain of each mourner as they cry in the shower, hide in the loo at work, or rage at the mirror. The title says it all – a family finding its way through grief.

Diane is a master flash writer; the final sentence in so many of these pieces resonates with strong emotional impact.
Several of the flash pieces in this collection made me cry, but there is also hope, laughter, and the resilience of the human spirit on display, in this deeply moving collection.

[Kleopatra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diane Simmons' Finding a Way had me weeping and weeping and loudly blowing my nose on the plane, so I think that's testament to its emotional power. It's a heartbreaking novella-in-flash about a family coming to terms, if that's even possible, with the death of their 25-year-old daughter/sister. It takes turns seeing how the parents, brother, and husband of the girl, Becky, experience loss and grief in small, isolated, expertly chosen scenes that add up to a really powerful and moving total. I loved this short book for its sincerity, its lack of sentimentalism and its simplicity in sharing something so complex and painful. I'm also still new to novellas-in-flash so this felt like an expert introduction to the format, and I hope to reread and study how all of the individual pieces map the family's pain so well. Really recommend this!

[Nichole Beauchamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book about grief and loss. I found it too upsetting the first time I picked it up, and had to park it for a while. Beautifully written from the perspectives of the mother, father, brother and husband. Heartbreaking but also so grounding and restorative.

[Debbi Voisey · Rating 5 out of 5]

After being born, the only certain thing in life is death. All of us will get there, and many will watch loved ones go before us. In Finding a Way, Diane Simmons shows us how a loss is experienced and navigated by four different people in the family of someone who dies way before their time.

Made up of 51 flash fictions–that can be dipped into and read alone, or all in one sitting– there is gut-punching prose here that will resonate with many. The platitudes and inept ramblings of well-meaning folk, the mis-timed reminders, the achings of “what might have beens”-each is a perfectly painted portrait of love, grief, and what comes after those things.

I found the honesty amazing and, this being written by Diane who is a formidable flash fiction writer of great pedigree, I felt in safe hands, realising the words I was reading came very much from a place of experience and depth.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars = I'm bawling, but in a good way. I read this book in two sittings, with a time-out to look up the author and send her an email after her two-paragraph story "Unread" really shook me, and I had to let her know. This book examines one family's grief from all angles in a series of connected flashes, and is very powerful. I don't know whether you should read it while your grief is still raw, because two years after the death of my mother and eighteen years after the death of my father, I still found some of the emotions that came up for me hard to grapple with. But when you are able to read it, I believe you will find that it's worth it. Diane Simmons' writing here is beautiful and gentle, with not a word out of place. Highly recommended.

[theshortstory.co.uk (TSS Publishing)]

"Finding A Way may not be an easy read, but nor it is meant to be. Despite only spanning 100 pages, it is a weighty exploration of grief that is exceptionally moving. This is a book that frequently moved me to tears, and ultimately gave me a greater insight into the grieving process..."

Read James Holden's full review at: https://theshortstory.co.uk/short-sto...

[K James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply moving story of a family’s attempt to carry on after the death of a beloved daughter.

This is so insightful. Be brave and read it if you have lost someone you love. You may not feel quite so alone.

[Charmspen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sorrow, tenderness and humor are interlaced in this lovely collection of stories which explore loss and love.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novella and flash is amazing I dare you to read it and not cry it’s lovely and the second book novella and flash is great as well take care and good luck with everything

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving - at times, heartbreaking - but never depressing, these stories about grief are brimming with courage, honesty and love.