The Night of Many Endings by Melissa Payne

“Well, it challenged me to see that we are each the sum of our experiences and that every decision we make, every experience we have, leads us to this single moment in time.” She pointed to the floor for emphasis. “If all of our moments are important, then I wanted to use mine to help others, because you never know how it will all add up.”

A once in a decade storm brings together an unlikely cast of characters. Nora a librarian who does everything she possibly can to help the homeless in order to try and find her brother who's struggling, Marlene an older woman whose kindness was only evident to her husband Charlie, Lewis a homeless man with little to his name and the same amount of hope, Jasmine a teen new to town, and Valdo the library security guard trying to keep an eye on the place and a subtle one on Nora.

I loved this book. It is an exploration of what can happen when you put people together and they just treat each other as humans.

When we are around the people we're comfortable with we can be a completely different person. Forced intimacy in a situation like this can help you understand people you never would have given a chance otherwise. You truly never know what someone is going through unless you take the time to talk to them.

This book humanizes addiction, the effect that it has on family members, homelessness, and grief. It is a lovely character study that I highly recommend.