The Beginner's Goodbye: A Novel

The Beginner's Goodbye: A Novel

<b>Pulitzer Prize€“winning author Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel about loss and recovery, pierced throughout with her humor, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.</b> <br>  <br> Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron grew up fending off a sister who constantly wanted to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, an outspoken, independent young woman, she€s like a breath of fresh air. He marries her without hesitation, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. Aaron works at his family€s vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy€s unexpected appearances from the dead€"in their house, on the roadway, in the market€"help him to live in the moment and to find some peace. Gradually, Aaron discovers that maybe for this beginner there is indeed a way to say goodbye.<br>  <br> <b>€œLike a modern Jane Austen, Tyler creates small worlds [depicting] the intimate bonds of friendship and family.€€"<i>USA Today</i> </b><br> <b> </b><br> <b>€œAn absolute charmer of a novel . . . With sparkling prose . . . [Anne] Tyler gets at the beating heart of what it means to lose someone, to say goodbye.€€"<i>The Boston Globe</i></b><br> <b> </b><br> <b>€œClassic Tyler . . . The wonder of Anne Tyler is how consistently clear-eyed and truthful she remains about the nature of families and especially marriage.€€"<i>Los Angeles Times</i></b><br> <b> </b><br> <b>€œBeautifully intricate . . . By the exquisitely romantic emotional climax [an] ordinary life has bloomed into an opera.€€"<i>Entertainment Weekly</i></b>