After Annie

(Paperback)

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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 Annies best friend Annemarie is lost to old bad habits without Annies support. It is Annies 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 Quindlens 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 ofloveare this writer's strong suit, and she has the unusual talent for writing about them with so muchtruth and heartElizabeth 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

Reviews

After Annie is Anna Quindlens new wise and heartfelt novel of connection, of loss and love and the power of both. It celebrates the friends and family we have, mourns our great and small losses, and helps us find the unexpected light in the dark places we all have Amy Bloom, author of In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss

A new Anna Quindlen novel is always cause for celebration. After Annie might just be my favourite one yet. Its a beautiful and deeply moving story about love, loss, friendship, marriage, family and community from one of our wisest chroniclers of modern life. I treasured every page J. Courtney Sullivan, author of Friends and Strangers

After Annie is a novel about loss and yet its pages are full of life and heart. With her deft interiority and spot-on depiction of the small moments that bring characters to life, Anna Quindlen tells a family story thats at once candid and complex and ultimately quite hopeful Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

The characters in After Annie are flawed, just as each of us is flawed, and as they fumble through their grief, as they make mistakes, their lives feel so authentically lived-in that Id swear Ive known them my whole life. And how I rooted for them! In Anna Quindlens hands, a story about the greatest of losses becomes a story of abiding hope above all. I predict this will be one of the best novels of the year Mary Beth Keane, author of Ask Again, Yes

A master of exploring human frailty and resilience in the face of domestic tragedy, best-selling Quindlen plumbs the depths of Annies survivors individual and collective grief in scenes that are both subtle and sharp. Exquisite in its sensitivity, breathtaking in its compassion, Quindlens exploration of loss and renewal will provoke both weeping and wonderBooklist

A quietly revelatory and gently gleaming gem of a book The very best thing about this book might be the way Quindlen, an anthropologist of domesticity, catalogues the sparklingly random moments that make up human experienceNew York Times Book Review

Luminous with life, hope and the power of lovePeople Magazine

'The lesson Quindlen offers is universal and incontrovertible: love and memories are powerful antidotes to grief... Another acute portrait of family life from a virtuoso of the form'Publishers Weekly