Ava Finds Time is the narrative of two friends who explore medicine, music, family and grief in Appalachia. One is a doctor who intends to read every word of a voluminous medical dictionary. The other is a musician who no longer performs.
Ava Hogan, the doctor, is spiraling towards a breakdown without knowing why. She has walled off her emotional responses to personal and professional tragedies in order to function as a busy practitioner. She tries to slow down time by reading Taber's Medical Dictionary and making comments about the words she finds, familiar and unfamiliar. An unusual trauma leads to Ava experiencing disabling panic attacks and she dives deeper into the dictionary. While eventually she turns to friends and family for help she also discovers a diagnosis in the dictionary that brings her back to the surface.
The musician, Rosella, stops playing music after a death and avoids painful conversations but brings light and joy to this small Eastern Kentucky town through her music store. Two young people come into the friends' lives, one a nonbinary journalist, the other a tattooed therapist. They play pivotal roles in helping Ava and Rosella work through their grief.
Ava and Rosella's stories braid together in appreciation and celebration of community, friendship and family. With delicate depictions of patients, customers and neighbors, they observe the unique circumstance of rural Appalachia. Ava Finds Time is fiction, but the characters are grounded in truth in how they speak and relate to the world.
The book can be appreciated by medical and non-medical readers alike. For those who have lost someone, the story is about the universality of grief and a reminder that bereavement follows many paths.
The author, Dr. Ann Colbert, has worked in Eastern Kentucky for three decades as a family physician and palliative care/hospice doctor. This has given her a unique insight into Appalachia's stories, voices, and people. Dr. Colbert has dedicated her life to caring for the underserved both in Kentucky and in global medicine. A lifelong writer, her blog posts can be found at anncolbez.wordpress.com