After Annie
-
- USD 11.99
-
- USD 11.99
Descripción editorial
‘Candid and complex – and ultimately quite hopeful’ Claire Lombardo
‘Beautiful and deeply moving’ J. Courtney Sullivan
‘A story of abiding hope’ Mary Beth Keane
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her four young children and her closest friend are left to struggle without the woman who centred their lives. Bill Brown finds himself overwhelmed, and Annie’s best friend Annemarie is lost to old bad habits without Annie’s support. It is Annie’s daughter, Ali, forced to try to care for her younger brothers and even her father, who manages to maintain some semblance of their former lives for them all, and who confronts the complicated truths of adulthood.
Yet over the course of the next year, while Annie looms large in their memories, all three are able to grow, to change, even to become stronger and more sure of themselves. The enduring power Annie gave to those who loved her is the power to love, and to go on without her.
Written in Quindlen’s emotionally resonant voice, and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is a story that ends with hope, a beautiful novel about how adversity can change us in profound ways.
Praise for Anna Quindlen
‘Leaves the reader feeling grateful, wide awake, lucky to be alive’ Michael Chabon
‘Simply impossible to forget’ Alice Hoffman
‘Qualities and shades of love are this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so much truth and heart’ Elizabeth Jane Howard
‘Breathtaking... Quindlen writes superbly about families, grief and betrayal. I was completely mesmerised’ Lisa Jewell
‘Engaging, immaculately constructed storytelling’ Guardian
‘One of our most astute chroniclers of modern life’ New York Times Book Review
‘Brave and beautiful’ The Times
‘Her storytelling is exemplary’ Sunday Telegraph
‘With relentless and dazzling brilliance, Quindlen grapples with the lancing pain and the swirls of disorientation experienced by anyone who has loved and lost’ Daily Mail
‘A wise, closely observed, achingly eloquent book’ Huffington Post
‘Overwhelmingly moving’ New York Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A 30-something mother of four dies unexpectedly in the affecting latest from Quindlen (Alternate Side). "Bill, get me some Advil, my head is killing me" are the last words Annie Brown says to her husband before she drops dead on the kitchen floor in front of him and their four kids. Practical, kind, and unassuming, Annie was the glue that held together their lives, and the life of her best friend Annemarie. Without Annie, Bill falls apart and has an affair with an old girlfriend. Annemarie spirals back into the drug use that Annie saved her from. Bill and Annie's oldest son acts up, the middle boy wets the bed, and the youngest son, at six, still believes Annie will walk back through the front door. It's left to the boys' older sister, 13-year-old Ali, to come up with makeshift dinners and do the wash. The lesson Quindlen offers is universal and incontrovertible: love and memories are powerful antidotes to grief. After Ali starts seeing her school counselor, things begin to turn around for the family. Though the ending ties everything together a bit too neatly, Quindlen makes the magnitude of her characters' loss feel palpable to the reader. It's another acute portrait of family life from a virtuoso of the form.
