Emma and John had been together since their teens, but at 26 Emma still felt too young to marry. Living happily together in Dublin, Ireland, since college, the couple also shared a group of close friends. On the night of a party to celebrate a friend's large inheritance, an unexpected tragedy takes away Emma's hopes for future happiness.
Emma wants to be alone with her grief, but her family and friends continue to helpfully interfere. Her brother Noel, a priest doubting his own choices, is especially careful to take care of her, as is John's best friend, SeΓ‘n.
As Emma watches her friends' lives move ahead, she doesn't understand why she can't get it together. The only person who seems to understand her pain is SeΓ‘n, but they share a guilty secret from the night of John's death that's keeping them apart. Emma fears that nothing good will ever happen again. Can she overcome her grief to let in love?
For a book almost entirely centered on one woman's grief, PACK UP THE MOON still captures the poignant truths of human relationships. Emma's interactions with her brother are particularly touching, although each of her friends illustrates the unique ways people can love each other. Full of candid, funny and honest moments, this guaranteed tear-jerker should be an excellent choice for book clubs and those readers who enjoy women's fiction and the complexities of life.
THERE'S A BIG LIFE AHEAD OF HER.
CAN SHE FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT?
Emma is twenty-six -- pretty, intelligent, and happily
living with her childhood sweetheart John in a cute little
Dublin apartment. Her biggest problem is that her mother
won't stop nagging her to get married already. Emma and
John feel like the perfect couple, their future alive with
possibilities. But out of the blue, a tragedy throws her
life into disarray -- and Emma is suddenly,
incomprehensibly, alone.
As she emerges from grief, Emma has to find a whole new
way of living, and her loyal friends rally round in an
attempt to help. Clodagh, Emma's lifelong friend, with
whom she's shared everything from mud pies to dating
disasters. Anne and Richard, more-or-less happily married
and debating a move to the country. Emma's brother Noel,
the young Catholic priest, finding his own faith tested
even as he tries to comfort Emma. SeΓ‘n, the gorgeous bad
boy of a thousand one-night stands, uncomfortably aware of
his and Emma's growing connection. Witty, acerbic, and
sometimes downright shocking, Emma documents the stories
of her friends and her own recovery from grief with a
candor that engages the reader from the very first page.
With an amazing insight into the power of friendship and a
wry, irreverent humor that considers no subject off-
limits, talented new Irish writer Anna McPartlin tells a
heartwarming story of the courage it takes to move past
loss and learn to live.
No excerpt available.
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