Two Novels about Tragic Loss

I recently read two novels that, coincidentally, centered around tragic losses to the main women characters. This is, of course, an ancient and universal literary theme, but it never loses its dreadful fascination. We all have either suffered such losses, or can imagine, with great fear, the occurrence of such losses. "February" (Black Cat, 2009), by the Canadian writer Lisa Moore, tells the story of Helen, a woman widowed young by the sinking of an oil rig on which her husband worked. The book is a novel, but the Ocean Ranger oil rig disaster off the coast of Newfoundland in 1982 actually happened, and is eerily timely in light of the oil rig catastrophe in the news now. The novel alternates chapters on the horrible disaster with chapters on the same character and her family in the present (2008), when she finally finds happiness again. The second novel is "Every Last One" (Random House, 2010), by Anna Quindlen. In this one, the main character, Mary Beth, lives a very comfortable and mainly happy life, although she has some family worries. But in the middle of the novel, a shocking event occurs that devastates the family and almost destroys Mary Beth. Only very slowly is she able to bring herself back to any semblance of a "normal" life, although she will be marked forever by the tragedy. Both of these novels are very well-written; neither uses the central event of her book just for shock value. Both main characters are very believable and sympathetic, but complex and very human. "Every Last One" has a whiff of the "popular" novel, but Quindlen's writing keeps getting better with each novel. Moore is a new author to me, but because I am impressed by "February," I plan to read her other works as well.