Broken for You

Broken for You (2004), by American YA novelist Stephanie Kallos, follows the unlikely friendship of two women who are recovering from loss and facing the prospect of death. It is Kallos’s debut novel.

With the exception of the prologue, which is written in second-person singular, the novel is told in the third-person voice. Its themes include family conflict, the power of friendship, secrets, and salvation.

The voice in the prologue is from Margaret Hughes, a 70-something, wealthy woman who has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. She decides to forgo chemotherapy and focus on living what little life she has remaining. To spice things up, she decides to rent out one of the many bedrooms in her Seattle estate.



Wanda Schultz drives to Seattle after receiving a mysterious postcard that she thinks just might be from a former lover. Wanda acts very tough on the outside, but on the inside she’s fraught with nerves (she works in the theater—acting is her personal and professional life). She realizes that her lovelorn quest mirrors her fathers; in 1969, he abandoned six-year-old Wanda. Until that, she had an idyllic childhood.

Needing a place to say, she contacts Margaret and the two quickly hit it off. Wanda likes that Margaret is quirky—her furniture is odd (thanks to her deceased father, an antiques dealer) and she claims her mother is haunting the mansion (her mother suffered a mental illness).

For the first week of their new living arrangement, Wanda is so focused on working all the time that she’s rarely home. Margaret is disappointed; she was hoping that taking on a boarder would, somehow, invest her own life with some new energy. One day, while Wanda is cooking some “macrobiotic” meal that’s supposed to improve her health, Margaret joins her and the two strike up the beginnings of a friendship. Margaret lets Wanda use one of her cars.



As they bond over wine, Margaret says she was married to an artist, Stephen Hughes, and had a son. Unfortunately, there was a car accident and her son died. Along with the fact that Stephen just wanted to live off of Margaret’s money and couldn’t sell his own art, the marriage did not survive the death of their child.

Meanwhile, Margaret continues to hear the voice of her overly critical mother. Her mother berates her for becoming an old woman and having few friends. One day, Margaret drops off Wanda at work and the younger woman is impressed with Margaret for zipping through rush hour traffic. Margaret goes to another doctor appointment and reiterates her wish to receive no treatment, even though it could extend her life for a couple of years. She spontaneously visits Hotel Orleans, where she has some good memories, and bonds with the valet manager, Gus MacPherson. At the theater, Wanda meets a handsome young man named Troy who helps her get through the chaotic business of directing actors. Each woman enters into a relationship of sorts with her respective male friend.

One day, Margaret asks Wanda if she minds sharing the spare room with another female boarder. Wanda says not at all. Wanda does not know that this person will be a full-time, live-in nurse. Margaret still does not wish for Wanda to know she has a brain tumor.



Wanda reflects on how her dad, who, after failing to find his love, changed his name to M.J. Striker and found a dead-end job at a bowling alley. While reliving this history, Wanda gets into a terrible accident and winds up in the hospital. For weeks, she’s in a coma and experiences terrible nightmares: in one, she’s an actress who can’t convince her audience she’s acting; in another, an inept stage manager tries to give her lines. She realizes that she’s the bad actor and the bad stage manager.

Wanda returns to Margaret’s house but refuses to be a charity case. She says she will move out on her own—she doesn’t want to burden Margaret. But then Margaret says she needs her. Margaret admits that she has an “astrocytoma,” i.e. a star-shaped tumor that will kill her. She also divulges another dark secret: much of the grand art that Wanda has been admiring was stolen by her father. Worse, it was stolen from European Jews fleeing the Holocaust.

They decide to reclaim the sad history by destroying the stolen artifacts and recasting them into mosaics. Wanda quickly realizes she has as a talent for the work; it also helps her come to accept her past for all its glories and errors. Breaking the relics of the past (hence the title) is also therapeutic for Margaret.



Another year passes, and the tumor hasn’t grown. But Margaret’s relationship with Gus has, and the two decide to go against the doctor’s orders and travel to Paris. Margaret passes once she returns to Seattle.

As the novel concludes, Margaret’s ashes are put into small teapots that are then given to the people closest to her in life. The studio, and all of Margaret’s remaining possessions, are given to Wanda.