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Also by Anne Tyler:

Three Days in June, February 2025
Hardcover / e-Book
French Braid, April 2022
Hardcover / e-Book
A Spool of Blue Thread, February 2015
Hardcover / e-Book
The Beginner's Goodbye, April 2012
Hardcover / e-Book
Digging to America, September 2007
Paperback (reprint)
Digging to America, May 2006
Hardcover
The Accidental Tourist, April 2002
Paperback

THE BEGINNER'S GOODBYE
By: Anne Tyler

Knopf
April 2012
On Sale: April 3, 2012
208 pages
ISBN: 0307957276
EAN: 9780307957276
Kindle: B005O1BXOM
Hardcover / e-Book
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Fiction Family Life

Anne Tyler gives us a wise, haunting, and deeply moving new novel in which she explores how a middle-aged man, ripped apart by the death of his wife, is gradually restored by her frequent appearances—in their house, on the roadway, in the market.

Crippled in his right arm and leg, Aaron spent his childhood fending off a sister who wants to manage him. So when he meets Dorothy, a plain, outspoken, self-dependent young woman, she is like a breath of fresh air. Unhesitatingly he marries her, and they have a relatively happy, unremarkable marriage. But when a tree crashes into their house and Dorothy is killed, Aaron feels as though he has been erased forever. Only Dorothy’s unexpected appearances from the dead help him to live in the moment and to find some peace.

Gradually he discovers, as he works in the family’s vanity-publishing business, turning out titles that presume to guide beginners through the trials of life, that maybe for this beginner there is a way of saying goodbye.

A beautiful, subtle exploration of loss and recovery, pierced throughout with Anne Tyler’s humor, wisdom, and always penetrating look at human foibles.

Media Buzz

Morning Edition - March 30, 2012