Novelist Bloom (White Houses) looks back on the beauty and turmoil of accompanying her husband through the final days of his life in this deeply moving memoir. When her husband, Brian, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in 2019, he chose to end his life via assisted suicide at Dignitas in Switzerland. As Bloom writes, she worried "that a better wife, certainly a different wife, would have said no, would have insisted on keeping her husband in this world until his body gave out." But her love for Brian and his desire for a meaningful end of life drove their mutual agreement to take the steps for him to die on his own terms. With passion and sharp wit, she jumps back and forth between the beginning of their relationship, the Herculean effort it took to secure an agreement with Dignitas, and the painful anticipation of the final trip to Switzerland. Most poignant are the intimate moments they share as they make the most of their last days together. As she writes, "I imagine that Brian feels as alone as I do but I can tell he isn't as afraid." The result is a stunning portrayal of how love can reveal itself in life's most difficult moments. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME. (Mar.)

Known for her introspective fiction (including National Book Award finalist Come to Me), Bloom shares a piece of herself in this first memoir. Bloom gives the reader full access to her experience of coming to terms with the onset of her husband's Alzheimer's disease and his decision to seek physician-assisted death. Bloom interweaves this experience with recollections of their past together as a mid-life couple in which each found their true life partner. Bloom's vivid imagery puts the readers in each scene; although written with a loving heart, this is an honest account that's not seen through rose-colored glasses. Of unique interest is the couple's experience of physician-assisted death, which they had to carry out in Switzerland instead of the United States, where access to assisted death is limited and cumbersome. Far from exploiting her husband's story, Bloom's memoir is a final homage to the man she loved; she says that her husband asked her to write this book because she was the only person who could do it with her particular perspective. VERDICT A memoir that will appeal to many readers as a study on grief, acceptance, relationships, and love. With her background in psychotherapy, Bloom provides clear and vivid insight on going on with life while accepting the loss of a loved one.--Kelly Karst

A beloved fiction writer shares the story of her husband's assisted suicide after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Readers will be locked into this gorgeously written memoir out of profound sympathy for the decision Bloom's 65-year-old husband made upon learning of his condition. A man who absolutely loved life, Brian immediately asked for help planning an early exit. By that time, the couple had for several years endured the depredations of his failing cognition without knowing why. Bloom describes this period with regret, longing, and her trademark mordant humor: "He has gotten me some really ugly jewelry in the last three years, things that are so far from my taste that, if he were a different man, I'd think he was keeping a seventies-boho, broke-ass mistress in Westville and gave me the enam-eled copper earrings and bangle he bought for her, by mistake." After researching what the future might hold, they sought the services of Dignitas, a Swiss organization supporting "accompanied suicide." The application process was complex. As one of Bloom's friends joked, "It's like you do everything you possibly can to get your kid into Harvard and when you do, they kill him." Along with this black humor comes plenty of despair. Sadness and tears suffuse the narrative, and many readers will shed tears of their own. In one heart-wrenching section, the author describes the plight of a family friend who shared Brian's condition: "She winds up in the care of one of her daughters, and she does not get to Dig-nitas, because that window probably closed two years earlier, and she will spend the rest of her life in a memory-care unit, and the best outcome I can hope for is that she dies soon. She does not die very soon and when we talk next, she is in the memory-care unit and she says, Something very strange is going on here, please come get me." As Alzheimer's becomes more prevalent, this shimmering love story and road map is must-read testimony. You will never forget this book, and if you do, let's hope someone close to you remembers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.