Matt Miller

Matt is the narrator of the novel. He is a teenager in his senior year of high school. His mother died during the early part of the school year and Matt missed many days of school because of his mother's illness and death. As he returns to school, he is struggling with this loss. Matt can see that his father is drinking too much as he also grieves, but he is unable to stop that trend. When his father drunkenly stumbles into traffic and is struck by a car, Matt begins spending even more time alone while his father recovers in the hospital.

Matt takes a job with a local funeral home with two goals. The first is that he wants to earn some money and to have a useful way to spend his afternoons. The second is that he wants to see how other people cope...