In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss
Amy Bloom
The Judges said:
A memoir about facing the unthinkable, rich in wit, grace, elegance and fierce truthfulness.
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In 2020, Amy Bloom travelled with her husband Brian to Switzerland, where he was helped by Dignitas to end his life. In Love is Bloom’s intimate account of losing Brian: from his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s and the slow onset of the disease, through to her becoming a widow. A passionate outpouring of love, and a moving reflection on the enduring power of a marriage.
Published by Granta
Amy Bloom is the author of four novels: White Houses, Lucky Us, Away and Love Invents Us; three collections of short stories, Where the God of Love Hangs Out, Come to Me, and A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You; and a collection of essays, Normal. She is the Shapiro-Silverberg Professor of Creative Writing at Wesleyan University.
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A Brief Q& A with Amy Bloom
What was your favourite childhood book?
I had two favorites, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and a House is Not a Home, Memoirs of a New York Madam by Polly Adler.
At what age did you know you wanted to become a writer?
35
Which is your favourite book of recent years?
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.
What three books would you take to your Desert Island?
- Robertson Davies The Deptford Trilogy
- Edward P. Jones The Known World by Edward P. Jones
- The Collected Poems of Janes (Jane Kenyon & Jane Hirshfield)
What is your ‘if you don’t like this, you can’t be my friend’ book?
Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats.
Who or what have been your most important influences?
Colette, Jane Austen, Alice Adams and James Baldwin.
If you weren’t a writer, what would you be doing?
Probably seeing more patients in my psychotherapy practice.
