Four Days — Gloria Goldreich

Happily married to a successful attorney, the mother of two growing children and herself a businesswoman responsible for her own computer firm, Ina Feldman suddenly discovers she is pregnant. At first, she feels she cannot allow her carefully planned life to be dislocated by the arrival of a baby, one she neither has planned for nor wants.

The solution to her dilemma seems obvious - she will have an abortion. But as she waits in the hospital the required four days while her minor breast surgery heals before the second procedure can be done, she begins to think more deeply about herself and her life. She is caught up by memories of the terrible years that haunt her dreams and torture her with nightmares. Now in this forced vacation from her busy life, she takes time to talk with those she loves and who love her. There is her husband, Ray, orphaned at an early age, who needs her as much as mother as a wife. There are her parents, who in their obstinate drive to forge a new life in America have ruthlessly suppressed all mention of the terrors of the past. There is her gentle cousin Bette, childhood friend in the death camp, in whom Ina can most safely confide her darkest fears. There is the memory of her brother, who died in the camp and whose loss involves deep feelings of terror and guilt. And finally, there are the other hospital patients, whose hopes and griefs bring them close to her, though she dares not share her own with them.