Signed in Pencil

"Gene, we dont budget for tears."

For twenty-two years Iris Hardcastle closed factories by the book. She was calm, thorough, and very good at it. Then a laid-off plant manager posted a recording of one sentence she said in a West Virginia meeting room, and three weeks later her company announced she was leaving to pursue other opportunities.

Thirteen months, one charming Frenchman, and one dead ficus later, Iris is back in Pittsburgh. Her ex-husband has married a woman who makes pierogies and wont stop being kind. Her grown son only calls when he needs her to Venmo him. What she doesnt know is what he has been doing with the money.

Nobody wants to hire a fifty-four-year-old woman whose name still trends in the comments. So Iris does what she knows: she starts helping people over fifty find work after a layoff. Until the man from the video asks for an appointment.

A wry, tender novel about the jobs we lose, the children we almost lose, and what it takes to start over when you are the one who wrote the rules.

For readers of Olive Kitteridge, Britt-Marie Was Here, and A Man Called Ove.