The Beginner's Goodbye by Anne Tyler

Aaron is still figuring out this whole adult life thing.  He works at his family's vanity publishing house where they specialize in a series called The Beginner's Guide to various things like parenting, job performance, buying a house, making a will, etc.  Aaron has a limp and an arm that doesn't work as well as the other and has spent his life fending off well wishers who want to mother him.  He knows he can take care of himself and is not interested in being treated like a child.  When he falls in love, it's with Dorothy who is a no nonsense doctor a few years older than him who never tries to manage him unlike his older sister.

But things aren't going well.  Dorothy was killed a year ago in a freak house accident when a tree falls on the house and the roof collapses.  Aaron has had to move back in with his sister while his house is being renovated by a team of workers.  Oh, and he has started seeing Dorothy occasionally and hears her talking to him in his mind.  It's not constant but it happens frequently enough that he's pretty sure it's the real deal.  Can Aaron move forward to a new life after his rough start?

Anne Tyler is one of my favorite authors and reading a book by her is like coming home and settling into your favorite chair with a box of candy and a good read.  She gently leads the reader to life lessons that you realize you always knew but maybe had forgotten in the rush of daily life.  Aaron is another likeable character who just needs some time to figure things out and the reader will be cheering for him to do so.  This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.