LOVE, ANTHONY

This is a heartfelt novel about 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.
Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from Harvard University. She is a member of the Dementia Advocacy Support Network International and DementiaUSA and is an online columnist for the National Alzheimer’s association. She lives with her husband and two children in Cape Cod. Her first two novels are the New York Times bestsellers Still Alice and Left Neglected.