Valerie Garay

Twilight Years Valerie Garay

In the poignant novel Twilight Years, four women friends are scattered around the world, living adventurous lives as they enter their senior years, and are forever bonded by the friendship they built during a previous vacation to Lake Como in Italy. Fifty-something Elsa Martos lives alone in Toronto but loves to travel with Lili, her wealthy Australian friend. Lili is married to Michael, a corporate lawyer who is emotionally scarred from a bitter divorce, but has somehow managed to embrace Lili's fierce independence and promiscuous past. Margaret is nearly sixty, loves her teaching position at the university, and is happy in Budapest. Widower and London resident Edith, has a knack for complaining and an unfulfilled dream of becoming a well-known artist. Margaret invites Elsa to visit Budapest and Lili and Edith eventually follow. As the four women meet up again and share their life stories, tragedy strikes one of them and brings the friends closer than ever. In this story of friendship that stretches across continents and seas, Elsa, Lili, Edith, and Margaret support each other through difficulties, love, and loneliness, ultimately realizing that to attain serene happiness, life must be lived fully, no matter what your age.