Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance
Books | Fiction / Literary
4.1
(188)
Alison Espach
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR and The Chicago Tribune“Heartbreaking and funny, often in the same sentence—a deeply felt, finely wrought, and highly satisfying novel. Alison Espach has created a family whose every sorrow, joy, and idiosyncrasy is utterly, vibrantly real.”—New York Times bestselling author Claire LombardoFor much of her life, Sally Holt has been mystified by the things her older sister, Kathy, seems to have been born knowing. Kathy has answers for all of Sally’s questions about life, about love, and about Billy Barnes, a rising senior and local basketball star who mans the concession stand at the town pool. The girls have been fascinated by Billy ever since he jumped off the roof in elementary school, but Billy has never shown much interest in them until the summer before Sally begins eighth grade. By then, their mutual infatuation with Billy is one of the few things the increasingly different sisters have in common. Sally spends much of that summer at the pool, watching in confusion and excitement as her sister falls deeper in love with Billy—until a tragedy leaves Sally’s life forever intertwined with his. Opening in the early nineties and charting almost two decades of shared history and missed connections, Notes on Your Sudden Disappearance is both a breathtaking love story about two broken people who are unexplainably, inconveniently drawn to each other and a wryly astute coming-of-age tale brimming with unexpected moments of joy.
Coming Of Age
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Author
Alison Espach
Pages
352
Publisher
Henry Holt and Company
Published Date
2022-05-17
ISBN
1250823145 9781250823144
Community ReviewsSee all
"If you have an older sister, this might be perfect for you"
M P
Marisol Perez-Jarquin
"ouch!<br/><br/>on the real, this book is devastating and tragic and also very beautiful and humorous. it feels like reading a long letter from a very real person. being an older sister to a younger sister, I found so much of my family in this book, which made it all the more heartbreaking and real.<br/><br/>I’d say approach this book with caution, specifically if you are close with your siblings and/or have experienced losing a loved one suddenly. but in general, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to see what love and grief really looks like, how they’re intertwined."
"One thing we know for certain is that Kathy dies. Another thing we know is that every life has its limits. <br/><br/>As we move through Sally's life, we witness her desperate struggle to hold on to Kathy as she fades away—not just in death, which we never expect to come so soon, but in the way they spend time together and in their shared routine while she is alive. Change is incredibly difficult, especially when it happens slowly, like peeling wallpaper layer by layer. For Kathy, the life she's always dreamed of is unfolding right before her eyes—having a boyfriend she's had a crush on for years, getting ready for college, and even thoughts of marriage. But for Sally, she's not ready to let go of her familiar space, which includes sharing every little part of their day with one another. <br/><br/>No one can fully explain it until you're in the thick of it yourself, but once you lose someone, they become a part of you in the form of grief, filling the space where you once thought only love would reside. You see grief shape others and never imagine you’ll one day carry that same weight. And you never really realize how much you hate it until it starts clawing at you, scratching uncomfortably beneath your skin. <br/><br/>I love this story because it captures the essence of grief so profoundly—the way it forces us to revisit experiences that now exist only in memory. What makes a novel about grief so good is that the author doesn’t need to mention the word in every other sentence for us to feel it. Sally’s story itself conveys everything we need to understand her emotions and the depth of her loss. <br/><br/>It also had me in tears at the end. I didn't want this family unit's story to stop, even if it was so tragic to experience, it was also extremely beautiful. <br/><br/>I know a lot of people are disappointed because they went in with this expectation of a completely different storyline, but I could not be more pleased. Easily my new favorite author."
"This elegantly written novel is about more than a single deadly accident. In its pages, the reader experiences four subsequent accidents in slow-motion—the unfolding tragedies of four ruined lives. The reactions of Kathy’s parents, Sally, and Billy wrenched my heart as they made one bad decision after another to staunch their pain. In spite of this, the novel is a story of redemption. Guilt might bring Sally and Billy together and rip them apart, forgiveness and love unite them in peace."
C K
Connie Keller