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In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss Spiral-Bound | March 8, 2022
Amy Bloom
★★★★☆+ from 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
$27.97
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In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss
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In this powerful memoir of boundary-defying love, the New York Times bestselling author of Away and White Houses tells the story of her husband’s discovery of his early onset Alzheimer’s, their growing understanding of the illness and his painful and affirming decision to choose his own ending.
“If you think that a long life is of great value just because it is our only time here on earth, or because you appreciate what God has allotted you, or because there might be the possibility of treatment or cure for whatever ails you within your lifetime, if only the lifetime is long enough--your view will be different than mine."
In Love is an unforgettable portrait of one couple’s determination to support each other in their last journey together. Amy Bloom and her husband Brian’s world was changed forever when an MRI confirmed the truth they could no longer ignore. Bloom reflects back on the loving marriage they shared, and then the sudden cascade of things going wrong: Brian’s decision to retire, his withdrawal from friends. Suddenly, it seemed there was a glass wall between them, and they weren’t able to talk as they always had. Finally confronted with the diagnosis and the daily frustrations and realities of Alzheimer’s, Brian became determined to die on his feet, not live on his knees. Together they find their difficult way to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace.
Written in Bloom’s captivating, insightful voice and with her trademark wit and candor, In Love is an illuminating story of two people whose love and shared life experiences inspired them to find a courageous way to part—and of a woman’s determination to find peace in the aftermath of loss.
Story Locale:Connecticut and Zurich, Switzerland
“If you think that a long life is of great value just because it is our only time here on earth, or because you appreciate what God has allotted you, or because there might be the possibility of treatment or cure for whatever ails you within your lifetime, if only the lifetime is long enough--your view will be different than mine."
In Love is an unforgettable portrait of one couple’s determination to support each other in their last journey together. Amy Bloom and her husband Brian’s world was changed forever when an MRI confirmed the truth they could no longer ignore. Bloom reflects back on the loving marriage they shared, and then the sudden cascade of things going wrong: Brian’s decision to retire, his withdrawal from friends. Suddenly, it seemed there was a glass wall between them, and they weren’t able to talk as they always had. Finally confronted with the diagnosis and the daily frustrations and realities of Alzheimer’s, Brian became determined to die on his feet, not live on his knees. Together they find their difficult way to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace.
Written in Bloom’s captivating, insightful voice and with her trademark wit and candor, In Love is an illuminating story of two people whose love and shared life experiences inspired them to find a courageous way to part—and of a woman’s determination to find peace in the aftermath of loss.
Story Locale:Connecticut and Zurich, Switzerland
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Original Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 240 pages
ISBN-10: 0593243943
Item Weight: 0.9 lbs
Dimensions: 5.8 x 0.9 x 8.5 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
“Bloom has a talent for mixing the prosaic and profound, the slapstick and the serious, which makes the book, despite its depressing subject matter, a pleasure to read. Rarely has a memoir about death been so full of life.”—USA Today
“As with all great books about dying, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss does not terrorize with grim statistics and forewarnings but rather destigmatizes euthanasia and enriches the reader’s life with urgency and gratitude. It renews those joys of being ‘In Love’ with the people around us—despite the numbing effects of routine and familiarity which so often cause happiness to lapse in middle age.”—The Washington Post
“I’m not sure why I hadn’t until now read Bloom’s fiction. . . . Not reading her: my loss. Bloom has one of those warm, wised-up, tolerantly misanthropic New York voices, in the manner of Laurie Colwin and Sloane Crosley and Allegra Goodman and Nora Ephron, and an ability to deepen her tone at will.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Reading this book is, purely and simply, a transcendent experience. In Love is a thrillingly beautiful, laser-eyed book about love, life, mortality, and, most remarkably, the ways in which no one of the three can be separated from the others. Prepare yourself to be heartbroken, expanded, unsettled, and filled with hope.”—Michael Cunningham, author of A Home at the End of the World
“I read In Love in one sitting on a long flight and a flight never went by so fast. I am full of admiration for this important memoir. The mastery of this book draws us in and delivers us, by the last page, changed.”—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
“In Love is a buoyant and entrancing memoir about one of the worst things that can happen to a couple. Bloom’s unfiltered glimpse into a working marriage is both a touchingly besotted portrait of her husband and a wrenching account of his gradual retreat from her. Their resolute approach to his death yields a story pulsing with raw life.”—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
“This is a beautiful, necessary book for anyone who loves their partner deeply and wonders and worries what the end might be like: poignant, kind, funny, and ultimately redemptive. One cries a lot, in the best of ways.”—Alain de Botton, author of The Course of Love
“A remarkable book from one of the United States’s most consistently brilliant writers . . . The subject is death, so the end is inevitable; but Bloom’s story is full of surprises and some of the most heartbreaking, honest, and funniest writing you’ll ever read.”—Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
“This shimmering love story and road map is must-read testimony. . . . You will never forget this book, and if you do, let’s hope someone close to you remembers.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A stunning portrayal of how love can reveal itself in life’s most difficult moments.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“As with all great books about dying, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss does not terrorize with grim statistics and forewarnings but rather destigmatizes euthanasia and enriches the reader’s life with urgency and gratitude. It renews those joys of being ‘In Love’ with the people around us—despite the numbing effects of routine and familiarity which so often cause happiness to lapse in middle age.”—The Washington Post
“I’m not sure why I hadn’t until now read Bloom’s fiction. . . . Not reading her: my loss. Bloom has one of those warm, wised-up, tolerantly misanthropic New York voices, in the manner of Laurie Colwin and Sloane Crosley and Allegra Goodman and Nora Ephron, and an ability to deepen her tone at will.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times
“Reading this book is, purely and simply, a transcendent experience. In Love is a thrillingly beautiful, laser-eyed book about love, life, mortality, and, most remarkably, the ways in which no one of the three can be separated from the others. Prepare yourself to be heartbroken, expanded, unsettled, and filled with hope.”—Michael Cunningham, author of A Home at the End of the World
“I read In Love in one sitting on a long flight and a flight never went by so fast. I am full of admiration for this important memoir. The mastery of this book draws us in and delivers us, by the last page, changed.”—Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
“In Love is a buoyant and entrancing memoir about one of the worst things that can happen to a couple. Bloom’s unfiltered glimpse into a working marriage is both a touchingly besotted portrait of her husband and a wrenching account of his gradual retreat from her. Their resolute approach to his death yields a story pulsing with raw life.”—Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home
“This is a beautiful, necessary book for anyone who loves their partner deeply and wonders and worries what the end might be like: poignant, kind, funny, and ultimately redemptive. One cries a lot, in the best of ways.”—Alain de Botton, author of The Course of Love
“A remarkable book from one of the United States’s most consistently brilliant writers . . . The subject is death, so the end is inevitable; but Bloom’s story is full of surprises and some of the most heartbreaking, honest, and funniest writing you’ll ever read.”—Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
“This shimmering love story and road map is must-read testimony. . . . You will never forget this book, and if you do, let’s hope someone close to you remembers.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“A stunning portrayal of how love can reveal itself in life’s most difficult moments.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Amy Bloom is the author of four novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away, and Love Invents Us; and three collections of short stories: Where the God Of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me (finalist for the National Book Award), and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You (finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award). Her first book of nonfiction, Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes, is a staple of university sociology and biology courses. Her most recent book is the widely acclaimed New York Times bestselling memoir, In Love. She has written for magazines such as The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Vogue, Elle, The Atlantic, Slate, and Salon, and her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is the Director of the Shapiro Center at Wesleyan University.
Author Residence: New Haven, CT
Author Hometown: New York, NY
Author Residence: New Haven, CT
Author Hometown: New York, NY