Editions

Page /
100%
  1. Home
  2. Fiction Books
  3. The Beginner's Goodbye
The Beginner's Goodbye

  • Imprint: Vintage

  • ISBN: 9780099572237

  • Length: 272  Pages

  • Dimensions: 198mm x 17mm x 129mm

  • Weight: 191g

  • 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: 191g

  • 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

More from this Author

View all View all
View all View all

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 Grown-ups, Digging to America, A Spool of Blue Thread, Clock Dance and Redhead by the Side of the Road. In 1989 she won the Pulitzer Prize; in 1994 she was nominated by Roddy Doyle and Nick Hornby as 'the greatest novelist writing in English'; and in 2012 she received the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence. In 2015 A Spool of Blue Thread was shortlisted for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction and the Booker Prize; and in 2020 Redhead by the Side of the Road was longlisted for the Booker Prize.

Anne Tyler

Read more

/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/december/Main-UGC-Books-2020-1800x1200.jpg.jpg

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.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/july/Book-longlisde-2020-spines.jpg

Features

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.
/content/dam/prh/articles/adults/2020/april/vintage-article-promo-safe-area-AnneTyler.jpg

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.

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies to make our website work. If you click 'Accept All’ we will use cookies to understand how you use our services and to show you personalised advertising and other content. You can change your cookie settings by clicking 'Manage Cookies'. For more information please see our Cookie Policy

Our Use of Cookies

We use cookies on this site to enable certain parts of the site to function and to collect information about your use of the site so that we can improve our visitors’ experience.

For more on our cookies and changing your settings click here

Strictly Necessary

Strictly Necessary cookies enable core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility. You may disable these by changing your browser settings, but this may affect how the website functions. See More.

Analytics

Analytics cookies help us to improve our website by collecting and reporting information on how you use it. These cookies may be set by us or by third-party providers whose services we have added to our pages. See More.

Preferences & Features

Preference and Feature cookies allow our website to remember choices you make, such as your language preferences and any customisations you make to pages on our website during your visit. See More.

Targeting / Advertising

Targeting cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you and your interests. They perform functions like preventing the same content from reappearing, ensuring ads are displayed and, in some cases, selecting content based on your interests. See More.