After Annie

A Novel

De: Anna Quindlen

Narrado por: Gilli Messer

Duración: 7 h y 49 m

Resumen del Editor

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Part of Quindlen’s gift is that you don’t just read about these characters, you inhabit them. . . . Luminous with life, hope and the power of love.”—People (A Book of the Week Pick)

“[A] quietly revelatory and gently gleaming gem of a book.”—The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice)

Anna Quindlen’s trademark wisdom on family, friendship, and the ties that bind us are at the center of this novel about the power of love to transcend loss and triumph over adversity, by the author of Still Life with Bread Crumbs and One True Thing.

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.

©2024 Anna Quindlen (P)2024 Random House Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“After Annie is Anna Quindlen’s new wise and heartfelt novel of connection, of loss and love and the power of both. It celebrates the friends and family we have, mourns our great and small losses, and helps us find the unexpected light in the dark places we all have.”—Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss

“The characters in After Annie are flawed, just as each of us is flawed, and as they fumble through their grief, as they make mistakes, their lives feel so authentically lived in that I’d swear I’ve known them my whole life. And how I rooted for them! In Quindlen’s hands, a story about the greatest of losses becomes a story of abiding hope above all. I predict this will be one of the best novels of the year.”—Mary Beth Keane, New York Times bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes

“A new Anna Quindlen novel is always cause for celebration. After Annie might just be my favorite one yet. It’s a beautiful and deeply moving story about love, loss, friendship, marriage, family, and community from one of our wisest chroniclers of modern life. I treasured every page.”—J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of Friends and Strangers

Just lovely

Touching without being cloying. Anna does it again, quietly. This is a very satisfying read. Hoping for more from Anna.

A bit of a yawn…

I’m a Big, Quinlan fan, but this book is one of her weakest. I finished the book, but never really engaged with any of the characters. The premise of the book is good, but the follow through isn’t there.

Another great AQ fiction

The narrator did a superb reading of this simple but deeply heartfelt book. I have been a fan of AnnaQuindlen since her Newsweek articles and always enjoyed the clear insight whether regarding the news or human nature.

So worth the read

The author just gets life. Because the book is so well written, a devastating story becomes one of hope.

Everything that happens is on the first page

I kept waiting for something to happen. Mom dies, kids, husband, best friend are sad. The end.

Helpful If You're Grieving

(A study in grieving after a mother’s death.) Beautifully written but a very depressing story.

Thought provoking

This was not my usual type of read. It was very thought provoking and not something that is always a good time to read. It deals with some topics that can hit very close to home for some. Anne wrote this in a way that was very respectful and helped to skim the surface of some hard to talk about and or understand. Losing a mom when you are only in middle school is very hard. And reading from that one viewpoint was very interesting. I loved that she wrote the book through three very different viewpoints, oldest child(daughter Ali), husband Bill and best friend Annmarie. Each has their own unique relationships with Annie and how they handle her death and how the three of them interacted with each other. I definitely recommend this a must read when you are in the mood for it. A great read!

A Greiving Family

I really enjoy Anna Quindlen's writing, and this book is a perfect example of her plain speak style that gets across very layered and complex emotions. This is super sad, but the ending tries to spread hope.

Simply beautiful

“After Annie” is a quiet meditation on family grief. Only Anna Quindlen can craft a story that is remarkable in its perceptible ordinariness. Her stories grab the reader because they are real, they are identifiable. If her story hasn’t happened to you, it’s happened to someone you know.

In “After Annie”, Quindlen writes of the trauma to a young family of six, when the young mom, Annie, dies on the kitchen floor while orchestrating dinner. Ali, the oldest, age 13, processes the information with the reader. She was always an insightful child, but now her observation skills go into overdrive. Bill, Annie’s husband, is utterly shocked and bereft. Quindlen writes a moment in which he is in the bathroom, with one tiny piece of toilet paper and a cardboard tube mocking him. He never had to add toilet paper to any bathroom; Annie did it. And Bill is a plumber by profession. Annie’s best friend, Annemarie, finds herself rudderless without her best friend. Quindlen writes their friendship beautifully, in flashbacks. Annemarie imparts her wisdom to Ali after Annie dies. Ali tells Annemarie that it’s not fair, a man can get a new wife, but children can never get new mothers. Annemarie tells her that men need women; women need women, everyone needs women! Quindlen has always been a supporter of female friendships in her novels.

This isn’t all beautifully behaved females though. Bill’s mother, the children’s grandmother, well, she’s a handful. Luckily, neither my mother nor my mother-in-law had any resemblance to Bill’s mother; but I can assure you, you’ve had the unfortunate experience with that sort of woman. There is a serious TW regarding child abuse (not of Annie’s children), and the mother in that situation was complicit. Annemarie had personal struggles which Annie helped her through. In other words, the women are real.

Of course there is the journey of grief. For me, Ali’s journey was heartbreaking as she navigated her puberty without her mother; they had been very close. Plus, Ali is trying to figure out the world without her mother’s guidance. Bill is trying to keep his family together, fed, clothed, and schooled. He now realizes all the jobs that Annie did, unbeknownst to him. Quindlen breaks up the story in seasons, beginning and ending in winter. She provides the POV’s of Ali, Bill, and Annemarie. The vacuum that occurs after the loss of a lively, beloved, friend, mother, employee is astounding. Only Quindlen can write in such a moving way.

I listened to the audio, narrated by Gilli Messer. It took me some time to get used to Messer’s cadence and tone. When I did, I realized she performed the book beautifully. It’s about grief, it’s sad.

The Gravitational Pull of Motherhood

No matter what echelon of life one is born into, there is that charismatic person who holds their family together. When that person is no longer left to lead, then, like it or not, the dynamics change. Well-written in an empathetic manner.