After The End - Clare Mackintosh

Fiction

Rating: 9/10

This wonderful novel manages to be both heartbreaking and uplifting.  No doubt due to the authors deeply personal connection to the material.

The first part of this book introduces us to Max and Pip, a happily married couple with an unshakable bond. Until their son becomes seriously ill and the question of his survival is put in their hands, and for the first time they cannot agree.

The story then takes us down both paths separately, depicting how each choice would have impacted them in the here and now as well as the future. So skilled is the writing that just when you think there is a possible resolution, the author opens another door.

A profoundly moving exploration of the ways in which the decisions we make can have life changing outcomes, and almost never in the ways we expect.

Accolades aside, this is no easy read for a parent.

Footnote: As you know I like to check out a few other reviews prior to publishing my own, just to get a sense of where I sit in the range of opinions.  One well known reviewer used the terms “overwrought” and “mawkish” and my question would be this; did you read the afterword? I think not…