In my opinion, Anna Quindlen is one of the premiere practitioners of the art of deeply felt domestic fiction. In After Annie, she once again goes deep into the heart and soul of a family, one that is facing loss and all that entails.

Annie was a mother to four children, all of whom counted on her, taking her for granted in the ways that children do. Her sudden, seemingly unpreventable death from an aneurysm at a young age, is the catalyst that deeply affects these children, her husband and her best friend.

Readers find out more about Annie as they spend time with those around her. Her daughter, Ali, is forced to grow up, her husband falters, and her best friend faces a renaissance of old issues. Will these folks who were left behind be able to move forward? Will they be okay? How will Annie continue to be a presence in their lives? Find out in this work of literary fiction that is as good as anything the author has written (and that is high praise).

Note: Anyone who has experienced a recent loss may find this book both difficult and worth reading

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for this title. All opinions are my own.

This quiet novel is a powerful study of grief.

The book covers the first year following the sudden death of Annie Brown in her mid-thirties. Those who experience her loss most strongly are her husband Bill, her four children, a best friend, and the people she helped care for in her job as a nursing home aide. The focus is on Annie’s husband, her eldest child Ali, and her best friend Annemarie.

There is no one way or right way to grieve and that is clearly shown. Bill becomes unmoored and tries to fill an emotional void by reconnecting with a former girlfriend. Ali takes on her mother’s role by caring for her three younger brothers and her father. Annemarie, a recovering drug addict, returns to destructive behaviours. The three sons show their distress in different ways.

This is very much a novel of character. All characters, even the more minor ones, feel authentic. Except perhaps for Bill’s mother, they are basically good people who have flaws. Bill, for instance, loves his children but is clueless in many ways; after Annie’s death he describes himself as being “without a map or a guidebook” for his life. He makes the mistake of not talking about Annie with his children and has to learn that “’sadness shouldn’t lead to silence.’”

Though Annie speaks only one sentence in the entire book, her character is also developed because we get to know her through others. We learn about her strengths and what was important to her. She loved her family, friend, and clients. She had a great sense of humour, appreciated the simple things in life, and took joy in her job and roles as wife and mother. Most of what we learn is positive but given the circumstances, that makes sense; in fact, Ali wonders “whether anyone ever said true things about people after they were dead, or whether dead people were always perfect, or at least very, very good.” For instance, Ali realizes “No one said, I wouldn’t want to get on Annie’s bad side, although that was true.” The more we get to know about Annie, the more we feel the characters’ loss.

There are many positive messages. Annie is an ordinary person who has an extraordinary impact so the reader is reminded that anyone can make a lasting impression. All those she loved continue to hear Annie’s voice in their heads so no one loved is ever truly gone. When Bill starts mentioning Annie in his conversations with his children, they see that he is not trying to forget her: memories provide comfort as one grieves. There is also an underlying idea that life is a privilege not given to everyone, so it’s important to embrace life.

Because of its subject matter, this book is not an easy read, but in the end it offers hope by emphasizing the power of love and human connection. We all encounter grief at some time in our lives, and this poignant novel provides some insight into that experience.

Anna Quindlen is a master at expressing the emotions of those facing unbelievable loss and the coping mechanisms that each member of the family, and Annie’s best friend, use to deal with Annie’s death. The dialogue is brilliant and the relationships between the characters totally believable. This is a story of loss but also of love, of finding a stable footing in a family that is sinking under grief.
Highly recommended. Quindlen succeeds in dealing with the depths of grief and loss without being maudlin or overly sentimental.

Anna Quindlen is known for crafting relatable stories about ordinary people who find themselves facing unexpected challenges that leave them profoundly and irrevocably changed. The strength of her writing style is its understated simplicity and humanity.

“Bill, get me some Advil, my head is killing me,” thirty-seven-year-old Annie Brown says to her husband as she is serving dinner — meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and peas — to him and their four children on an otherwise unremarkable evening. “Bill,” she said again, “and then she went down, hard,” on the kitchen floor. Bill ran to her, scooped her into his arms, and carried her to the living room floor as he yelled to thirteen-year-old Ali to call 911. He took the telephone from her and began explaining what happened to the dispatcher as Ant, Benjy, and Jamie also watched helplessly from their seats at the kitchen table. Bill accompanied the ambulance to the hospital, leaving Ali, bewildered and frightened, to look after the younger children. Eventually, the two little boys ate some dinner, and Ali cleaned up the kitchen and got them into bed. She finally dozed off on the living room couch but was awakened at 3:11 a.m. by the sound of someone opening the back door.

Bill saw Ali on the couch and collapsed on the floor, crying. Neither of them was able to move. Finally, Bill said, “Oh, my God. What the hell am I going to do?” And any hope Ali still held out, dissipated. Bill did not need to say the words. She knew her mother was dead.

In After Annie, Quindlen examines the life of Annie’s family during the first year after her sudden death from a brain aneurysm as they grapple with loss, grief, and a future that looks nothing like it did immediately before that one pivotal moment. From her characters’ perspectives, Quindlen reveals their turbulent emotions, examines their search for peace and acceptance, and explores their efforts to adapt to a new sense of normalcy and routine.

For Bill, Annie’s death is overwhelming and, for a time, paralyzing. And not just because he loved her completely, even though they married “too fast and too young.” He depended upon her. He needed her. She was the center of his world, as well as his children’s. “Annie had been a natural mother” who was happy and content with her “lovely reliable life that went on day to day with the occasional occasion, a party, a new baby, dinner out, vacations.” She worked hard at the local nursing home where she was beloved by residents and staff alike. She adored her children and husband, as well as her best friend, Annemarie, with whom she had an unbreakable bond despite conflicts, resentments, and times that called for unyieldingly tough love. The life she and Bill shared was "enough," a fact that Annemarie could not always relate to or understand.

Even though Bill tries to “pull himself together” – he felt as though he was “leaving pieces of himself wherever he went, in every room, like he was dismembered by loss” – he has no idea how to do so. He must keep working to provide for his family – he is a plumber and Annie’s income was necessary to keep their household running – and take care of his children. He doesn’t know any of the details he relied upon Annie to remember and manage: the names of the kids’ teachers, doctors, and friends, their clothing and shoe sizes, when appointments are or need to be scheduled. He increasingly foists responsibility upon Ali and feels guilty about it, but incapable of handling things himself. And as his overbearing, self-centered mother, Dora, who owns the house in which they reside and with whom Annie had a fractious relationship, pressures him to “move on,” only making things worse, he reconsiders his life. “Was his life a choice or an accident?” Dora never liked Annie because she thought Bill could have fared better by marrying his high school girlfriend, Liz, a perky real estate agent who is eager to take Annie’s place . . . with Dora’s blessing. But a new relationship, along with all of the other changes Liz attempts to impose on the Brown family, is not what Bill – or his grieving children – need. He feels as though is life is “bring run by women” –wasn’t it always? – and he recognizes that he must find his own voice and be assertive, make appropriate choices for himself and his family, and stand on his own for the first time in his life.

Ali finds returning to school after her mother’s death difficult and Annemarie observes that Annie would be heartbroken that Ali seems to have become “a grownup in an instant.” Ali does not want to cry because that will make it “all true,” and she is displeased when forced to participate in sessions with the school counselor. Her best friend, Jenny, a secretive girl from a wealthy, overprotective family, reminds Ali not to share her feelings with the counselor. No good could come from it. Rather, the counselor would “become your extracurricular activity, and you would become that kid.” “I didn’t lose my mother,” Ali explains to Ms. Cruz, who is new to the school. “I hate it that people say that. I didn’t lose her, and she’s not gone, and she didn’t pass away. She’s dead.” Ali isn’t eating and is bothered by the fact that her father and brothers have stopped talking about her mother. She resents her father’s attempts to move on with his life, particularly the time he spends with Liz instead of at home, noting that he can find a new wife, but she and her brothers can never have another mother. Over the course of the next few months, Ali does open up to Ms. Cruz as she grows taller, developing into a young woman. Her understanding of the adults in her life and their shortcomings expands as she learns to trust her own instincts, forgive, and appreciate that although her mother may not be physically present any longer, their connection to each other can never be severed.

At the age of eleven, Annie’s death exacerbates Ant’s already-simmering anger. Unsure how to respond to his outbursts or comfort his oldest son, Bill proceeds with Annie’s plan to send him to camp where his behavioral problems amplify. With each passing day, Ant becomes crueler, hurling vile insults at others. Benjy requires a tutor because he is having difficulty learning to read and six-year-old Jamie just wants to know when his mother is coming home. He insists that she is “being patched up at the hospital.”

For Annemarie, the magnitude of the loss of the woman who has been her best friend since first grade defies description. Annie was Annemarie’s life compass. She knew the real Annemarie and, unlike others, was never fooled by her. Annemarie recalls how Annie literally saved her life, but accepted no excuses and threatened to turn her back on Annemarie forever if she failed to match Annie’s belief in her and efforts on her behalf. Fear of how desolate her life would be without her best friend and most stalwart supporter kept Annemarie clean and sober. But losing Annie has destroyed Annemarie’s equilibrium, and her already prickly relationship with Bill is “curdling” without Annie there to mediate. She is reeling, spiraling out of control, and veering toward abusing prescription drugs again. Will anything stop her from destroying her marriage, business, and life?

The story opens in winter and Quindlen’s narrative moves forward through the seasons until it is winter again and the first anniversary of Annie’s death. Quindlen’s riveting story compassionately details how the Brown family becomes utterly lost when Annie dies, unequipped to navigate the shocking and unspeakably profound departure of their wife, mother, and irreplaceable friend. Quindlen’s depiction of how they find their way through the haze of grief and sorrow that descends upon them is compelling and credible. Every one of Quindlen’s fully developed characters is flawed and vulnerable, their imperfections magnified in the wake of Annie’s absence. They are also sympathetic and, largely, likeable. Even Dora, pushy and domineering, is empathetic because she loves her son and wants the best for him and her grandchildren, and her worldview is the culmination of her own life experiences. So there are no villains in this story. Rather, the characters are a group bound together by their love for and relationships with Annie who must reevaluate and redesign their connections to and interactions with each other, and their own lives, without her. Once again, Quindlen, who the New York Times aptly alls an “anthropologist of domesticity,” probes the nuances of everyday life – shock, grief, mourning, and finding happiness again – with quiet, eloquent insight and tenderness. Small details, like the way characters continue calling Annie’s phone just to hear her voice and how scents evoke memories and longing, resonate. After Annie is a richly emotional story populated with characters about whom readers will care deeply as they contemplate their own reaction to and capacity to navigate loss and rebuilding.

I received this advanced reader copy in exchange for a fair review, from NetGalley. This novel is truly unique and interesting, fine read for any Book club or Contemporary reader, it was enjoyable to see the character development from the eyes of our young protagonist. Recommended!

When Annie Brown dies suddenly and unexpectedly, her husband, four young children, and best friend are left bereft and unmoored. Annie kept them all afloat and supported.

Anna Quindlen presents the heaviness and hurt of grief in such a beautiful way. Through the viewpoints of Annie's husband Bill, eldest child 13-year old Ali, and best friend AnneMarie, we see how they struggle with life after Annie. It's raw, heartfelt, real, and hopeful. While this is a difficult subject matter, this book is beautiful and memorable. I highly recommend it.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the advance reader copy. I am required by law to disclose this.

Dying suddenly from an aneurysm in front of her husband and children, Annie Brown is sorely missed not only by her family, but also by her best friend (Annemarie), who was like a sister to Annie. How each of these people deal with Annie’s death, how each grieves his/her loss, and how each manages to go on with life is the focus of this novel. Although very slow moving at times, this novel is beautifully written and manages to convey the depths of individual grief as well as to celebrate the gift of love. A very moving novel that is a real piece of literature.

It is a beautiful story about a young mother dying too early and how her friends, family, and husband learn to cope, learn to grow, and learn to continue a memory of lovely women while remaining open for love in the future.
Highly recommend.
Thank you, NetGalley, for an advanced copy of this book.

I really enjoy Anna Quindlen's writing - this is my third book of hers and I've enjoyed each one.

I loved how we learned so much about Annie without having ever really "met" her in the book - she's the main character and yet she dies within the first few pages. But we get to know her intimately through her relationships with those she left behind, their memories of her and the way she shaped them before she died. It's a brilliant and refreshing way to introduce and build a character from beginning to end. Her life and legacy is expressed through those she left behind; she's not perfect by any means, but she's real and means well, and she lives large, even in death. The author did a beautiful job of expressing how her family moves forward without her, slowly and begrudgingly, but eventually finding their way through their grief to honor her, each in their own way. Highly recommend this one!

After Annie is a character driven narrative about what happens to a family after their mother unexpectedly dies. I loved the nuance and the authors choice to also include the reaction/actions of Annie’s best friend after her passing. This was my first Anna Quindlen book but it won’t be my last!

4.25 stars.

I had the absolute pleasure to sit down in a clubhouse in Ireland and devour After Annie in one sitting while my husband played around of golf. This book was beautiful and hit hard even though both of my parents are still living.

On the very first page, Annie Brown falls to the ground while cooking dinner for her family. The four young kids are all there. Annie dies. The book follows her family’s life after that terrible incident. Her husband, Bill, struggles to get through the day. Annie’s best friend, Annemarie, tires to keep her addiction from re-emerging as she looks to help the family move on, but remember Annie. Annie’s eldest daughter, still a child, becomes a mother to her three brothers over night. It a sad, yet hopeful and beautiful story.

4.5 stars
Heartfelt, raw story about a woman dying and how her husband, children, and best friend learn to go on without her. Very sad, yet hopeful too. It's not just about death, but about life, love, family, relationships, personal growth. I thought the characters were very well done, including some of the secondary characters such as Ali's friend and her counselor.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for a free e-ARC of this book.

I haven’t read an Anna Quindlen book that I haven’t liked – that streak continues. I really enjoyed this story. There’s no action or suspense….just a lovely story of grief and the various ways people deal with it throughout the 1st year. When Anna dies suddenly, her husband has to figure out how to be a single dad, her children have to adjust to the loss of their mom, and her best friend has to figure out how to live her life without her rock that kept her life on the right track. They all deal with their personal grief differently.

One negative I have for this book is that although in real life 2 people with the same name can be best friends without any issues, I see no need to name 2 of the main characters Annie and Annmarie. Multiple times I had to stop myself to look back to confirm which character said something.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for the complimentary copy of this book. As always, the opinions expressed within this review are completely my own.

4.5 stars, rounded up

This is a brief, but extremely well written and thoughtful book about death, grief, and moving through it. I thought it would be very sad, but overall it is not so much sad to me as it is poignant.

Annie is a married mother of four who suffers a brain aneurysm and dies. The book is told from the perspectives of her thirteen-year-old daughter Ali, her husband Bill, and her lifelong best friend AnneMarie. Each of them deal with the loss in varying ways, some positive and some negative.

The book made me frustrated at times, with none of the adults realizing how much Ali was taking on and getting mired in their own grief and personal issues. I really appreciated when she started seeing the counselor because it was great that someone was finally in her corner.

This is a quietly contemplative book. These are normal people dealing with a traumatic event in the only way they know how. The characters are beautifully depicted without the need to have giant events to prove points after the major one of losing Annie. Some struggle in school, some struggle with friendships, someone suffering from past addiction issues stumbles, and small moments add up to real life.

As with her other books, Quindlen's writing is what makes this novel glow. It's meaningful without being overwrought, and is such a true look at the many facets of grief, loss, and moving forward.

Anna Quindlen's writing reminds me of Anne Tyler in some ways, or Elizabeth Berg. Her writing style is quiet and unhurried, with peeks into the lives of her characters that slowly unspool into a beautiful and rich story. After Annie is like this.. a slow burn of emotion and pain and grief and loss but in a way that feels both manageable and true.

I enjoyed each page as I went along. I would like liked a couple of the characters to be fleshed out even more, but very much enjoyed spending time with the ones that Annie, sadly, left behind.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 @𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘰𝘮𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦 #𝘨𝘪𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘥.) Anna Quindlen is a gifted, prolific American writer whose books often touch your soul. Her latest, 𝗔𝗙𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗘, is no exception. The book opens with its tragic event. While making dinner on an ordinary evening, 37-year old Annie collapses in her kitchen and dies from a brain aneurysm shortly after. That’s not the story though, it’s the catalyst for what happens to those in her world in the year after Annie is gone. ⁣⁣⁣
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Annie leaves behind many people who love her, but most of all her husband, four children, and her lifelong best friend. This is a beautiful story of an irreplaceable woman, intense grief and the journey towards learning how to live a life without her. ⁣⁣⁣
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Even with all that, 𝘈𝘧𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘦 was not the intensely emotional read I had expected it to be. Grief lived at its core, so of course there was a depressing quality to it, but not overwhelmingly so. Quindlen’s deft writing took her characters down a dark road and punctuated their stories with truly touching moments. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.25⁣⁣⁣
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“None of the meditation sessions anticipated trying to quiet your mind, and in the quiet, hearing only the vast silence of eternal absence where your bestie forever had once been. Forever was so much shorter than she’d always thought.”⁣⁣⁣
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“They were all floating in some in-between where nothing seemed right. Waiting for the rest of life, whatever that was, a future that felt like a betrayal.”⁣⁣⁣
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“You know what really bothers me,” Ali said in the car, looking straight ahead through the windshield. “That my father can have another wife, but we can’t ever have another mother.”

*Young mom Annie's abrupt death leaves her four children, husband, and best friend reeling. Each of them must find a way back to themselves and back to each other without their key person in After Annie.*

In Anna Quindlen's newest novel After Annie, the abrupt death of the titular young mother--which occurs in the kitchen in front of the family just before dinner--leaves her four children, husband, and best friend reeling.

Annie was in her early 30s, and she hadn't even been close to finishing what she'd started. She had a job she excelled at, offering care and steadiness at the nursing home; she and her dear lifelong best friend Annemarie (two Annes!) had been through the upheaval and crises of young pregnancy, addiction, and following different paths and struggling to stick together; and she and her husband Bill were in the thick of young parenthood, with endless plans but little money or time to enact any of them yet.

Over the course of the next year, each of those who had been closest to her and who are left behind struggles and threatens to fall apart--both individually and also to collectively fall away from each other in a way that would have infuriated Annie.

The thing that saves each of them from bottomless grief and from giving in to their most desperate, despairing, hopeless impulses is Annie's frequent voice in their heads, reassuring them, loving them, sticking by them.

It was unsatisfying to see only glimpses of the pivotal figure of Annie--I found myself wanting more of these. She makes up the heart of the book and is the center of the wheel of characters rotating around her, yet little page time is spent with her directly because she dies so early in the novel.

We spend the most page time with Annie's oldest child and only daughter, Ali, as she navigates young adulthood; with widower Bill, who belatedly recognizes his parenting and household ineptitude and also falls into the arms of the local woman who was after him in high school; and with best friend Annemarie, who is professionally successful and married but has been deeply invested in Annie's family and home life since Annie and Bill married. Annemarie realizes how essential Annie had been to her own sense of self and how lost she feels without her friend's guidance.

The key characters make mistakes and stumble repeatedly before finding their way back to their new selves and their existence without Annie.

I read After Annie courtesy of NetGalley and Random House.

Annie Brown died of a brain aneurysm while fixing supper. Just like that she was gone... She left a grieving husband, four young children, and a bereft best friend. She was only thirty-seven.

"They were all floating in some in-between where nothing seemed real and nothing seemed right."

Annie was a joyful woman. Though not rich, she thought her life was exactly what she wanted. She was content. She loved her family and she enjoyed her work as a nursing aide at a nursing home. As a result everyone who knew her loved her right back... with the possible exception of her mother-in-law, who didn't know how to love.

Bill, her husband worked as a plumber. As he was handsome and not yet forty, the women of the town were eager to garner his attention. As for Bill, he kept Annie's phone plugged in and listened to her answering recording.

"The foreverness of it shocked him every single day."

Ali, the eldest of the children was only fourteen when her Mum died. With three younger brothers, she finds herself with way too much responsibility, and too much sorrow.

Ant, the eldest boy, is suddenly struggling at school. He is angry and inconsolable.

Annemarie, Annie's best friend, is totally bereft. Formerly addicted to prescription medications, she finds herself rudderless without Annie's unwavering support.
With all this grief, bereavement, loss, heartbreak, and sorrow, one would assume this novel was cheerless and melancholy, but somehow it was not. The characters were so realistic, their plight so understandable, that you find yourself just following them along in their search for a way to cope with life 'After Annie'.

The narrative takes place in the year following Annie's death. As the seasons change in Pennsylvania, we follow the Brown family through their struggles and coping mechanisms. This novel makes you pause and take the time to appreciate your own life and the people in it.

If you love moving, realistic fiction peopled with characters you can really care about, look no further. To say this is 'moving' is somewhat of an understatement though. This one made my 'ugly cry' with a resultant headache. Highly recommended!

It begins with an unimaginable loss. Annie, a 37-year old mother of four, collapses and dies in her kitchen one night. Her husband, four children and best friend Annemarie navigate their grief in different ways over the following year. The writing is beautiful; the storyline acutely sad but also so hopeful at the same time. Love is so present in this story.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC. Available now. Highly recommend.

This beautifully written novel follows Annie's husband, their 4 children and her best friend over the course of a year after her sudden death.
For all of these character, Annie was their anchor - the glue that kept everyone together. This character driven novel has very little action, yet the impact of Annie's life and death is developed on nearly every page. The characters were believable and the author brought them through the grief, and loss as well as the healing and hope that they each experienced over the year.
The saddest part of the novel (for me) was Ali (Alexandra) middle school teenager, who takes on the responsibility of caring for her 3 younger brothers. She has one close friend and discovers something terrible about the other girl, but no one to process the information with. This child had to grow up tooo fast as her father was completely overwhelmed with his job responsibilities (as a plumber, who was on call all the time), and the boys were too young to comprehend the totality of death and the void that their mother's passing left in their home and their lives. On top of the family's loss, Annemarie, who was Annie's best friend since childhood, felt the loss acutely as Annie was there to get her through drug detox, and whenever she waivered. Her marriage was crumbling and Annie, who had been her strength, was not there.
Eventually, over the course of the year, the family and Annemarie learned to live their lives without Annie, and the book was a story of hope and healing.
The only negative about the book was that the chapters were too long and run together. I would have preferred separate chapters that presented the individuals as they transitioned through the year.
I received an ARC from NetGalley and Random House and the opinions expressed here are my own.