Love Anthony
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4.4 • 59 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
'Remember how you couldn't put down Still Alice? Well, clear your schedule-because you're going to feel the same way' Jodi Picoult
From the bestselling author of Still Alice and Every Note Played comes a heartfelt novel about friendship and a mother coping with the loss of her autistic son.
Olivia Donatelli's dream of a 'normal' life was shattered when her son, Anthony, was diagnosed with autism at age three. He didn't speak. He hated to be touched. He almost never made eye contact. And just as Olivia was starting to realise that happiness and autism could coexist, Anthony died. Now she's alone in a cottage on Nantucket, separated from her husband, desperate to understand the meaning of her son's short life, when a chance encounter with another woman facing her own loss brings Anthony alive again for Olivia in a most unexpected way. In a piercing story about motherhood, love and female friendship, Lisa Genova offers us two unforgettable women on the verge of change who discover the small but exuberant voice that helps them both find the answers they need.
Fans of The Reason I Jump and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time will love Lisa Genova's story: always authentic and utterly moving.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Genova's newest (after Left Neglected) tells the tales of two women struggling with a timely topic, but the device she uses to connect their stories a bland bit of mysticism obfuscates otherwise compelling narratives. Olivia's life is in shambles she spent years coming to terms with her son, Anthony, being diagnosed with autism, only to lose him to a subdural hematoma at age 8. Now her husband's filing for divorce. Meanwhile, Beth is reeling from the discovery that her husband has been cheating on her for months. In an effort to cope, she returns to her former passion writing and begins a new book inspired by a dream. That story magically turns out to be Anthony's story, as told by him. Eventually, the women come together, and Olivia reads Beth's story and begins to heal. Though each story is engaging in its own right, the plot device that connects Beth and Olivia makes the book read like self-help.
Customer Reviews
Read this in one sitting
A wonderful book, I read it a single sitting.
Thank you
Best insight to autism I have ever glimpsed. Powerful and beautiful. Thank you for sharing your incredible gift, Lisa Genova.
A rewarding read
Like the main characters in this novel, Anthony's story came to me at just the right time. I've had no contact with autism in my life, but found this novel to be deeply moving and engrossing nonetheless. As well researched as Still Alice and Left Neglected, and just as uncanny in the way it burrows inside the atypical mind and gives authentic voice from that perspective, Love Anthony is a great read at first. But for me, it shifted gears around the halfway mark, and it just suddenly had me. I was in. The craft of the writing, the structure of the narrative, the investment in the journey of the characters and the subtle mystery had me desperate to discover the ending. It was a book that helped me, and I'm grateful. Clever, clever writing.