cover image In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss

In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss

Amy Bloom. Random House, $26 (240p) ISBN 978-0-593-24394-7

Novelist Bloom (White Houses) looks back on the beauty and turmoil of accompanying her husband through the final days of his life in this deeply moving memoir. When her husband, Brian, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s in 2019, he chose to end his life via assisted suicide at Dignitas in Switzerland. As Bloom writes, she worried “that a better wife, certainly a different wife, would have said no, would have insisted on keeping her husband in this world until his body gave out.” But her love for Brian and his desire for a meaningful end of life drove their mutual agreement to take the steps for him to die on his own terms. With passion and sharp wit, she jumps back and forth between the beginning of their relationship, the Herculean effort it took to secure an agreement with Dignitas, and the painful anticipation of the final trip to Switzerland. Most poignant are the intimate moments they share as they make the most of their last days together. As she writes, “I imagine that Brian feels as alone as I do but I can tell he isn’t as afraid.” The result is a stunning portrayal of how love can reveal itself in life’s most difficult moments. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME. (Mar.)