Description

‘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

Publisher Review

‘After Annie is Anna Quindlen’s 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. It’s 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 that’s 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 I’d swear I’ve known them my whole life. And how I rooted for them! In Anna Quindlen’s 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 Annie’s survivors’ individual and collective grief in scenes that are both subtle and sharp. Exquisite in its sensitivity, breathtaking in its compassion, Quindlen’s exploration of loss and renewal will provoke both weeping and wonder’ Booklist

‘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 experience’ New York Times Book Review

‘Luminous with life, hope and the power of love’ People Magazine