Published October 3rd, 2024 by Magpie
Psychological Fiction, Domestic Fiction
Welcome to my review for Leaving, the beautiful and hearbreaking read that was the SquadPod Book Club pick for October. Thank you to Magpie for sending me a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
What does love demand of us, and who must pay the price?
‘Absorbing…haunting.’ Meg Woltizer, author of The Wife
High school sweethearts, Sarah and Warren, have grand plans for an adventurous future together, but when a misunderstanding causes them to part ways, they end up marrying other people.
When they meet again at sixty, their lives have been carved into very different shapes. Sarah lives outside New York; Warren lives in Boston. Sarah is divorced, Warren still married, and both have grown up children. When they reconnect, they feel the rekindled spark of love and desire – a spark that has been dead for so long. But are they willing to risk destroying all that they have built separately for the chance of a future together?
‘Classic… I’d read any story she has to tell.’ Amity Gage, New York Times
‘Smart, seductive.’ Daily Mail
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MY REVIEW:
Beautiful, moving, heartbreaking, bittersweet and devastatingly raw, Leaving is a riveting portrait of a marriage ending while a new love blossoms, and the price we can pay for love.
One night at the opera, Sarah runs into her high school sweetheart, Warren. Now sixty, the pair haven’t seen each other for forty years and married other people, but it is immediately evident they still have a strong connection. They can’t stop thinking about each other and start to meet, tentatively reconnecting as they catch up on the years they’ve spent apart. Sarah was single when they met, while Warren was in an unhappy marriage, which he decides to end to grasp his chance at happiness with the love that got away, sparking a chain of events that ask them just how much they are willing to sacrifice for their love and the chance of a future together.
I was not prepared for this book! Beautifully told, reflective, lingering and compelling, Roxana Robinson drew me in and I lost myself in the lives of these richly drawn, relatable and flawed characters. Robinson expertly conveys the overwhelming, painful, and often conflicting emotions that come with these situations, the characters’ emotions leaping from the pages. She also wonderfully writes the euphoria and fear of falling in love after heartbreak and the complexities of trying to merge established lives to create a new, blended family. As someone who has been through divorce and then been lucky enough to find my soulmate and create a blended family, I related to so much of what Sarah and Warren experienced. I know the heartache of being trapped in a marriage you know is not right and the strength it takes to walk away. I also know the betrayal that Warren’s wife, Janet, felt when your whole world falls apart because you learn your husband has been having an affair. My heart was with all of these characters in so many ways but there were also times I couldn’t understand or condone their actions. It is one hell of an emotional journey. And that ending! I can’t stop thinking about it and don’t know when I’ll get over it.
Mesmerising, heartstopping and achingly real, Leaving is a powerful story that I highly recommend.
Rating: ✮✮✮✮✰
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
Roxana Robinson is the author of eleven books—seven novels, three collections of short stories, and the biography of Georgia O’Keeffe. Four of these were chosen as New York Times Notable Books, two as New York Times Editors’ Choices.
Her fiction has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Harper’s, Best American Short Stories, The Southampton Review, Ep!phany and elsewhere. Her work has been widely anthologized and broadcast on NPR. Her books have been published in England, France, Germany, Holland and Spain.
Roxana Robinson has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation and the MacDowell Colony, and she was named a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library. Robinson has served on the Boards of PEN and the Authors Guild, and was the president of the Authors Guild. She has received the Barnes and Noble “Writers for Writers Award,” given by Poets and Writers, and the Award for Distinguished Service to the Literary Community from the Authors Guild. She teaches in the MFA Program at Hunter College.
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BUY THE BOOK:
Bookshop.org* | Waterstones* | Amazon*
*These links are affiliatel links
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Thanks for reading, Bibliophiles xxxx
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