The Love of My Life
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4.0 • 33 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
I have held you every night for ten years and I didn’t even know your name. We have a child together. A dog, a house.
Who are you?
Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie.
And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer and Emma is a well-known marine biologist, so, when she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – reading and writing about her life. But as he starts to unravel her past, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name is fictitious.
When the very darkest moments of Emma’s past life finally emerge, she must somehow prove to Leo that she really is the woman he always thought she was . . .
But first, she must tell him about the love of her other life.
The Love of My Life is the astounding new novel from Rosie Walsh, bestselling author of The Man Who Didn’t Call.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Suspenseful and wrenching, British author Rosie Walsh’s Love of My Life is a dazzling thriller that’s anchored by an understated and deeply-felt romance. Obituary writer Leo and his marine biologist wife, Emma, are both keen observers of the world around them, illuminating the stories of their subjects. When Leo is tasked with drafting Emma’s obituary, he is forced to confront her muddled past and unravel the mysteries of the woman he loves. As the twists build, the plot moves rhythmically and Walsh turns the metaphors of marine ecology to her advantage—obscuring and exposing cracks and details like the tide does in a rock pool. The result is a raw and poignant novel about identity that’s beautifully written and completely captivating.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Set in London, this heartbreaking thriller from bestseller Walsh (Ghosted) explores the complexity of secrets in marriages. Leo Philber, an obituary writer, has been happily married to 40ish marine ecologist Emma Bigelow for seven years. Emma has been battling lymphoma, and in his effort to cope with her possible death, Leo decides to draft her obituary in secret. To prepare, he begins to research her life, but after discovering secret Facebook messages and inconsistencies about her educational background, he concludes that he truly doesn't know his wife. In chapters from Emma's perspective, she reveals that, instead of doing extensive research at the Northumberland beaches, she has been having clandestine meetings related to the traumatizing event that changed her life 20 years earlier. Leo soon learns about the meetings and demands an explanation, but Emma vanishes after dropping off their three-year-old daughter at nursery school. Walsh cleverly integrates twists that not even jaded readers will be able to predict into an initially slow-burning plot that builds to an emotionally raw yet satisfying conclusion. Walsh is a writer to watch.
