Reviewed by Jeanne
Evie Monroe is a best-selling novelist who has it all,
including a case of writer’s block. She’s bored with the book she’s writing
when all at once she decides to take her own advice to would-be authors: write what you know, and write the book you
want to read. Immediately she knows what she wants to write and the words just
burst forth into her biggest selling novel yet, one optioned for a movie. It’s a dream.
And then Eve wakes up in a hospital, not sure why she’s there
or how long she’s been there. Her devoted
husband Nick is there and says he has been all along. Her children are being
taken care of by their grandparents. There was an operation for a brain tumor. Eve is going to have to relearn a lot of
things, and Nick will be by her side.
The advice Eve gives is also the advice Sophie Kinsella takes
in this short novel. In 2022, Kinsella was diagnosed with a stage four glioblastoma.
She underwent surgery to remove the tumor and has since been undergoing
treatment. As she explains in the afterward, this is not her memoir but it is
her story. And what a story it is:
courageous, tender, loving, and against the odds, hopeful. I found it to be both moving and uplifting; treating
the story as fictional allows a distance for author and reader to connect in a
way that’s personal but not intrusive. It’s very much a love story, but not
really a tearjerker. It’s gently amusing, and gently thoughtful, dealing with
questions we tend to avoid.
This was a lovely book and deserves the accolades it has
received. I know I will be recommending it to others.
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