Editions

The Beginner's Goodbye

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099572237

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 192g

  • RRP: £8.99

The Beginner's Goodbye

When Dorothy came back from the dead, it seemed to Aaron that some people simply didn’t notice.

The accident that killed Dorothy – involving an oak tree, a sun porch and some elusive biscuits – leaves Aaron bereft and the house a wreck. As those around him fuss and flap and bring him casserole after casserole, Aaron ploughs on. But then Dorothy starts to materialise in the oddest places. At first, she only comes for a short while, leaving Aaron longing for more. Gradually she stays for longer, and as they talk, they also bicker and the cracks that were present in their perfectly ordinary marriage start to reappear...

‘One of my favourite authors’ Liane Moriarty, author of Big Little Lies

‘My favourite writer, and the best line-and-length novelist in the world’ Nick Hornby

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099572237

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 192g

  • RRP: £8.99

Reviews

  • A terrific writer... She's changed my perception on life'

    Anna Chancellor

  • Deeply rewarding novel about grief and hope, infused with gentle humour

    Sunday Times

  • A near flawless novel of love and loss ... exquisitely poignant but unsentimental

    Rosemary Goring, Sunday Herald

  • She's a master storyteller and inventor of character

    Vanessa Berridge, Daily Express

  • This novel's great achievement is to capture the tensions and subtleties of a married life cut short… I read it virtually in one sitting, but that's a fairly common experience with Anne Tyler books… I didn't want it to end. Which is also a fairly common Tyler thing

    Viv Groskop, Independent on Sunday

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About the Author

Anne Tyler

Anne Tyler was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1941 and grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina. Her bestselling novels include Breathing Lessons, The Accidental Tourist, Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant, Ladder of Years, Back When We Were Grownups, A Patchwork Planet, The Amateur Marriage, Digging to America, A Spool of Blue Thread, Vinegar Girl and Clock Dance. In 1989 she won the Pulitzer Prize for Breathing Lessons; in 1994 she was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as 'the greatest novelist writing in English'; in 2012 she received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence; and in 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread was a Sunday Times bestseller and was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Man Booker Prize.

Anne Tyler

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Features

Readers' picks: your favourite books of 2020

We asked you to share your reading highlights from this year. Here's what you couldn't put down.
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Anne Tyler and Avni Doshi make the 2020 Booker Prize longlist

Redhead by the Side of the Road and Burnt Sugar are among the 13 novels vying for the world's most prestigious literary award.
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Recommendations

Where to start reading Anne Tyler's books

Anne Tyler is the favourite writer of everyone from Liane Moriarty to Hanya Yanagihara, and was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as ‘the greatest novelist writing in English’. Here’s our guide to getting started.

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