This Book Will Save Your Life was among one of my best friends’ favourite books. She gave it to me as a present many years ago; thinking that it would cheer me up. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the chance to read it, for years! It is such a shame, isn’t it? So I created a reading project in which, I read seven favourite books from my best friends. I’m so glad I did! After all these years, I was able to read This Book Will Save Your Life. It did cheer me up! And it made me want to see Los Angeles!
This Book Will Save Your Life may feel like a movie. It is pretty easy to read, and the characters are sympathetic and familiar. So you can feel like watching an independent American movie that will help you unwind and think about yourself.
It is all about the feelings
The book is about Richard Novak, and it is set in Los Angeles. Richard is one of the richest people in this city. He lives in a beautiful house; he has a maid, a nutritionist and a sports instructor. His life looks like a dream but, obviously, it is not. Unfortunately, what he has is not enough to make him happy. One day, he feels a pain that covers his whole body. Oh, and there’s a big hole in front of his house. Richard’s life is slowly changing after this pain and the hole. The book manages to sound fun all the way. And it tells the readers how keeping in touch with family and friends and helping strangers fill those big pits inside us.
A. M. Homes is a writer who creates characters you care about. She writes about modern times, so it is very likely you’ll find yourself in her books in some way. Enjoy!
About the book: This Book Will Save Your Life
This Book Will Save Your Life is an uplifting story about one man’s efforts to bring himself back to life. Richard is a modern-day every man, a middle-aged divorcee trading stocks out of his home in Los Angeles who needs no one. His life has slowed almost to a standstill until two incidents conspire to hurl him back into the world. One day he wakes up with a knotty cramp in his back, which rapidly develops into an all-consuming pain. At the same time, a wide sinkhole appears outside his living-room window, threatening the foundations of his house. A vivid novel about compassion and transformation,
This Book Will Save Your Life reveals what can happen if you are willing to open yourself up to the world around you. Since her debut in 1989, A. M. Homes has been among the boldest and most original voices of her generation, acclaimed for the psychological accuracy and unnerving emotional intensity of her storytelling. Her keen ability to explore how extraordinary the ordinary can be is at the heart of this touching and funny novel, which was shortlisted for the Richard & Judy Book Club in 2007.
About the author: A. M. Homes
Amy M. Homes is an American writer best known for her controversial novels and unusual short stories, which feature extreme situations and characters. Notably, her novel The End of Alice depicts a convicted child molester and murderer.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
