Thanks to all who entered the contest to win my copy of Julie Buxbaum’s “After You.” The winner is Debra Schubert with her 5-word entry describing home as “The place where I’m complete.” Debra, email me to get your copy!
I believe in passing books along, letting others share in the reading pleasure. So with that in mind, I’m pleased to offer a giveaway of my advanced reader copy of Julie Buxbaum’s ‘AFTER YOU,’ which releases today in stores. You can read more about Julie and the book here on my site. For now though, let’s have a contest!
First, the disclaimer: the ARC does not have the official cover of the book. The copy I have is an advanced copy, so the cover is paperback and very plain and says it’s an advanced copy, which I think is kind of the coolness of it! But if you like pretty covers and pictures, then buy the book! (Well, buy it anyway!)
Now, the story is about how Ellie drops everything to help a friend’s daughter after the friend has died suddenly. And ultimately the novel is about the quest for home, what home means and how to find it. In honor of that deeper theme in the novel, let’s do a five-word contest on the theme of home.
In FIVE WORDS only, please write in the comments what “home” means to you. The winner gets my ARC!
I am a big-time fan of Julie Buxbaum. Her debut novel “The Opposite of Love” was one of my favorite books of 2008 and remains on my all-time top reads list. It’s fresh and riveting. What is best about Buxbaum’s writing is just that — the writing. She is a master of words, clever with verbs and inventive in her descriptions. I will never forget how the heroine Emily in “The Opposite of Love” described her emptiness: “The opposite of love isn’t hate; it isn’t even indifference. It’s fucking disembowelment. Hara-kiri. Taking a huge shovel and digging out your own heart, and your intestines, and leaving behind nothing.”
Now her second novel “After You” is due to hit the shelves on August 25 and the writing remains inimitably Buxbaum-ian. Consider how the main character Ellie describes her complicated affection for her god-daughter: “A feeling of love rushes through me like vertigo, an overwhelming, sharp tilt, and then just as quickly, a righting, slamming, shaming pain when I catch myself, for just a moment, pretending that Sophie is mine.”
I love the cadence of Buxbaum’s words, the way she describes a character thinking as “riding out the carnival in his head,” how you feel the harsh weight of truth as she juxtaposes words like “destructive” and “confession.”
“After You” is the story of how Ellie comes to terms with her own marriage, potential parenting and willingness to love by caring for a grieving child.
I remain a devoted member of her fan club and will be eagerly awaiting her next book as well!
