You Left Early: A True Story of Love and Alcohol - Tapa blanda

Críticas

‘Rich and moving and beautifully written’ The Times

‘Bloody hell. It is an extraordinarily powerful and moving work – for all. Especially those of us who know alcoholics who can’t not be that. An achingly beautiful book which I devoured in two sittings. Amazing’ Emma Thompson

‘Spectacular. I can’t stop thinking about it. Louisa Young is a beautiful, beautiful writer and there is great courage and love in the way she addresses her subject. It’s the portrait of a man and his times and his illness told with love but also with an unflinching honesty that feels like a great gift to the reader’
Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

‘Beautiful but, yes, sobering story ... it is, at heart, an old-fashioned love’ Daily Mail

‘An extraordinarily candid bereavement memoir... As much as it’s an overwhelming love letter, Young’s book is also a sobering reminder of the devastating effects of alcoholism, not just on an individual’s life, but on everyone else around them’ Evening Standard

‘The most riveting, heartbreaking book I've ever read about addiction, but above all about the nature of love. Already one of my books of the year’ Linda Grant

‘Brave, honest and beautiful’ Nicholas Lezard, Evening Standard

‘Louisa Young's memoir of her long, bruising love for musical genius Robert Lockhart is as honest as the morning after and the best account of loving against all sense since Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater’ Patrick Gale

‘I’m still fucking crying. And it’s such a great work of art. I wish I'd read it before I worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor’ Philippa Perry

‘Oh my God, it’s so beautiful, and heartbreaking, and true’
Sam Baker, The Pool

'Had me weeping into my pillow... Anyone who has ever loved an addict will recognise most of what she has to say’ iNews

‘An important book, one that demands we rethink a culture of blame around alcoholism ... moving, harrowing and tirelessly empathetic’ Daily Express

Reseña del editor

‘Spectacular. I can’t stop thinking about it. Louisa Young is a beautiful, beautiful writer’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

This brutal, beautiful memoir from award-winning novelist Louisa Young is a heartbreaking portrayal of love, grief and the merciless grip of addiction.

Louisa first met Robert Lockhart when they were both 17. Their stop-start romance lasted decades, in which time he became a celebrated composer and she, an acclaimed novelist. Always snapping at their heels was Robert’s alcoholism, a helpless, ferocious dependency that affected his personality before crippling and finally, despite five years of hard-won sobriety, killing him.

There are a million love stories, and a million stories of addiction. This one is truly transcendent. It is at once a compelling portrait of a unique and charismatic man; a bittersweet reflection on an all-consuming love affair; and a completely honest and incredibly affecting guide to how the partner of an alcoholic can possibly survive when the disease rips both their lives apart.

This is a hugely important book – raw and unflinching but also uplifting and elegiac, it should be essential reading for anybody who’s ever lost someone they loved.