No other book entangles romance and grief in such an urgent and beautiful way. Tre Miller Rodriguez writes as she lives: with breathless poise, unmatched style, and fierce bravery. (Claire Bidwell Smith, author of The Rules of Inheritance) Splitting the Difference is a story of love and loss told with flair, ballsy bravado and unflinching honesty. Susan Shapiro, author of 5 Men Who Broke My Heart At 18, Tre gave her newborn daughter up for adoption. At 19, her only sibling was killed in a car crash. At 34, her husband died of a sudden heart attack. But at 36, her teenage daughter found her on Facebook and began to reshape the course of Tre s life. The sum of these milestones is Splitting the Difference: A Heart-Shaped Memoir, the nonfiction book that is equal parts inspiring, irreverent, and heart-rending. Through sharply immediate prose, Tre unpacks her experience as a young widow in New York City: the dumb sh*% people say; the brave face she wears to work and social events; and the lack of solace in one-night stands. Her perspective only begins shifting when she spontaneously brings Alberto s ashes on a trip, which sets into motion her ritual of spreading him in bodies of water. By traveling to Bucket List destinations like Brazil and Cuba, Tre discovers a grief strategy for facing her roughest days. Alberto s death ultimately becomes a portal through which Tre views her past and embraces her future: she quits her corporate job, explores Alberto s homeland of Cuba, and joyfully reunites with her biological daughter in North Carolina. A deeply moving narrative, Splitting the Difference is written with the raw-thenticity of a woman transformed by heartbreak and inspired by love s legacy.