A Touching Memoir About Love, Loss and Literature
By Will Schwalbe
Alfred A. Knopf, $25.00, 335 pages
When New York book publisher Will Schwalbe finds out his mother, Mary Anne, has pancreatic cancer, his world is turned upside down. In the months that follow, through chemotherapy treatments and palliative care, Will and Mary Anne cope with her terminal illness and her eventual death by forming their own mother-son book club. In The End of Your Life Book Club, Will Schwalbe connects with his mother, reading books together and sharing the intimacies of their lives together within the context of books in this moving account of love in the face of profound loss.
Tender, and highly readable, The End of Your Life Book Club is a memoir that is as much of a love letter for literature and the power of books to shape us as it is a tribute to the love between a mother and son. The passion that Will Schawalbe has for books is infectious and will most likely lead to adding books to your winter reading list. This highly readable memoir is thought provoking and tender as it compassionately portrays the details of loving someone with a terminal illness.
Reviewed by Kristin Leigh
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