The story of an accidental friendship that gives a grieving mother a priceless gift: the ability to understand the thoughts of her eight-year-old autistic son and make sense of his brief life. Two women, each cast adrift by unforseen events in their lives, meet by accident on a Nantucket beach and are drawn into a friendship. Olivia is a young mother whose eight-year-old severely autistic son has recently died. Her marriage badly frayed by years of stress, she comes to the island in a trial separation to try and make sense of the tragedy of her Anthony’s short life. Beth, a stay-at-home mother of three, is also recently separated after discovering her husband’s long-term infidelity. In an attempt to recapture a sense of her pre-married life, she rekindles her passion for writing, determined to find her own voice again. But surprisingly, as she does so, Beth also find herself channeling the voice of an unknown boy, exuberant in his perceptions of the world around him if autistic in his expression—a voice she can share with Olivia—(is it Anthony?)—that brings comfort and meaning to them both.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
0 0Lisa Genova is an author that does not disappoint and has become one of the authors I rely upon for a great story. Love Anthony is a heartbreaking and also endearing story that will pull upon your heartstrings as a mother and would lend itself well to any book club discussion.
Olivia had always dreamed of being a mother, but her idea of what life would be like as a mom is changed when her son Anthony is diagnosed with autism at the age of three. Anthony struggles with sounds and crowds and “normal” childhood experiences and Olivia works hard to make sense of what life is like for Anthony when he cannot speak to her. Just when Olivia begins to make sense of what her new life with Anthony will look like, he unexpectedly dies.
She finds herself alone in a cottage on Nantucket, newly separated from her husband, and desperate to understand the meaning of her son’s life when a chance encounter with another woman facing her own loss brings Anthony alive again for Olivia in a most unexpected way.
The two stories of these women is beautifully woven and what I truly appreciated about this story, as heartbreaking as it was, is how Genova seems to get inside the head of what it would be like to live as an autistic child and how she seems to really bring light to the difficulties an autistic child would have to endure.
Beautiful and a sweetly satisfying ending for a heartbreaking tale, Genova continues to weave beautiful stories that linger in my mind long after I close the book.
Read more at http://momadvice.com/blog/2012/12/great-reads-for-moms-december-12-edition#8dBD0wUMLV0PUdJx.99
0
© 2024 Pagebound