Grace After Henry

By: Eithne Shortall

Narrated by: Alana Kerr Collins, Euan Morton

"A poignant love story.... Bittersweet and charming, perfect for fans of Jojo Moyes." (Shelf Awareness)

Grace sees her boyfriend, Henry, everywhere. In the supermarket, on the street, at the graveyard.

Only Henry is dead. He died two months earlier, leaving a huge hole in Grace's life and in her heart. But then, Henry turns up to fix the boiler one evening, and Grace can't decide if she's hallucinating or has suddenly developed psychic powers. Grace isn't going mad - the man in front of her is not Henry at all, but someone else who looks uncannily like him. The hole in Grace's heart grows ever larger.

Grace becomes captivated by this stranger, Andy - to her, he is Henry, and yet he is not. Reminded of everything she once had, can Grace recreate that lost love with Andy, resurrecting Henry in the process, or does loving Andy mean letting go of Henry?

©2019 Eithne Shortall (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"An engrossing, surprising, and empowering story about the complexities of love, grief, and family. The characters were so beautifully developed that by the time I finished reading, I felt like I'd known them forever." (Jill Santopolo, best-selling author of The Light We Lost)

“Is it possible for a novel about grief to be this enchanting? Shortall’s extraordinary debut is about the kind of shocking tragedy that shatters your life, about the ghosts and people we cling to for solace, and about how, when we truly open our lives to loss, life actually becomes deeper, richer, and all the more precious. A gorgeously written, haunting reminder that nothing is ever really lost.” (Caroline Leavitt, New York Times best-selling author of Pictures of You and Cruel Beautiful World)

“This book is a poignant and touching account of one woman moving on after great tragedy. Shortall’s American debut does not go for easy solutions but shows how grief manifests differently for those who experience it.” (Booklist, starred review)

“Insightful...Shortall’s thought-provoking potentialities combined with her perceptive characterizations are certain to keep Grace and Andy in the reader’s mind for a long time.” (Publishers Weekly)

Loved it.

So enjoyed this book. Very easy listen. Performance was wonderful. Feel good book. Going to miss the characters.

Interesting story, but …

There were many things I liked about this. I liked the way we got pieces of Grace and Henry’s story interwoven with the present story. That was well done. The pieces from the past were all relevant to the present.

I liked Grace and Henry together. It was a true love story, what they shared. It made the “Grace after Henry” part so poignant.

I LOVED Grace’s parents. And Betty. Those characters saved this story for me more than once and I will remember the moth dance and “the blonde one” for a while. Those three were delightful.

I think I can understand what happened to Grace and then to Isobel, the almost-delusion they allowed themselves. But it Creeped. Me. Out. After a while, it just made me feel icky. I almost gave up on this because of that, but as I said, Grace’s parents. Betty.

Alana Kerr Collins was, as always, wonderful. She’s a favorite of mine. Euan Morton was good too.

Yikes

This may have been a good book but I will never know .
Could not understand a word !