After Annie by Anna Quindlen, 4 Stars

When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, her children, and her closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the lynchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life.

Over the course of the next year what saves them all is Annie, ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody’s fool, a voice in their heads that is funny and sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone.

Written in Quindlen’s emotionally resonant voice and with her deep and generous understanding of people, After Annie is about hope, and about the unexpected power of adversity to change us in profound and indelible ways.

My Review:

When someone dies suddenly, it’s extremely hard to even begin grieving. One day they are here, one day they are gone. And when that person is young, or even worse, someone who a lot of people depend on, it can be devastating. So when Annie dies, leaving her children without a mother and her husband without a wife, the whole family is lost.

Quindlen artfully spins a realistic tale and character study into the stages of grief. Annie’s husband, her four children and her best friend go through it all without the one person they would depend on to get through challenging times. In the end, through it all, they find eachother and each go through a type of metamorphis that Annie would have been proud of.

Special thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advanced e galley in exchange for my honest review. This one is out now!