How to Walk Away: A Novel
From the author of Happiness for Beginners comes the instant New York Times bestseller (May 2018), an unforgettable love story about finding joy even in the darkest of circumstances.
Margaret Jacobsen is just about to step into the bright future she's worked for so hard and so long: a new dream job, a fiancé she adores, and the promise of a picture-perfect life just around the corner. Then, suddenly, on what should have been one of the happiest days of her life, everything she worked for is taken away in a brief, tumultuous moment. In the hospital and forced to face the possibility that nothing will ever be the same again, Maggie must confront the unthinkable. First there is her fiancé, Chip, who wallows in self-pity while simultaneously expecting to be forgiven. Then, there's her sister Kit, who shows up after pulling a three-year vanishing act. Finally, there's Ian, her physical therapist, the one the nurses said was too tough for her. Ian, who won't let her give in to her pity, and who sees her like no one has seen her before. Sometimes the last thing you want is the one thing you need. Sometimes we all need someone to catch us when we fall. And sometimes love can find us in the least likely place we would ever expect. How to Walk Away is Katherine Center at her very best--a masterpiece of a novel that is both hopeful and hilarious; truthful and wise; tender and brave. Praise for How to Walk Away: "Katherine Center's voice did what great fiction is meant to do: It pulled me in so immediately and completely that I forgot about real life." --Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of Daisy Jones & the Six "I can't think of a blurb good enough for this novel...poignant, funny, heartbreaking." --Jenny Lawson, bestselling author of Furiously HappyBUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Katherine Center tackles subject matter that could lead a less-skilled writer into a decidely maudlin, cliched, predictable mess of a story. But with Center's adept control of her characters and theme, the story of Margaret Jacobsen is a deeply moving, relatable, and empathetic journey, full of believable emotions and humor. First, Center adroitly describes the events that change Margaret's life forever in a manner that immediately connects them with her main character, as she struggles to understand and aceept what has happened. The story-telling device is a brilliant one because the reader is instantaneously invested in Margaret's struggle to comprehend and accept what has occurred. As the story opens, she has just completed a Master's degree & landed a job that surpasses her goals. She is engaged to a young man she has loved for years and has never had any reason to doubt her love for him, much less his love and commitment to her. However, shortly after their engagement becomes official, tragedy strikes. Margaret gradually begins to grasp what has happened and the myriad ways in which she will have to cope with the reality that the life she planned will never materialize. She does so surrounded by her thoroughly dysfunctional, but loving family, as well as indomitable strength, determination, and intention that she never knew she possessed. She never loses her snarky, sarcastic sense of humor which is characterized by banter with her sister that resonates as true and eerily accurate with any reader who has/had sibling(s). Yes, there is romance, but it is neither cloyingly sweet nor anticipated, making the magical moments Center includes feel organic and satisfyingly believable. The result is a story that makes readers cheer enthusiastically for not just Margaret, the lead character, but those characters who truly love and support her, and want, like Center's readers, only the best for her because Center shows readers that Margaret deserves it. How to Walk Away is a perfect beach or vacation read and will resonate with a broad age-range of readers (beginning with young adult).
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book!
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book!
Honestly. Not one of my favorites from this author. It was good but not until I was about half way done. That’s when it started to feel like there was a story and that something was happening. That’s when the main character started having some development. Overall the ending was great but I wish there was more to the story. I felt like something was just lacking. But again I joined the last 1/2 of the book!
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