Kathy Stinson's new young adult novel is set in downtown Toronto, where the main character, Al, faces a terrible choice. Every summer she leaves her home in Alberta to spend a month with her father in the East, but this year she must spend a whole year with him, and after that she must decide where her permanent home will be. one year commencing is a passionate, often funny story, which never makes Al's dilemma seem simpler than it is. It is both a novel and a document for our times.