For example, teenaged Jake, whose mother died of cancer, confides that his dad is coping with his grief by “compulsive shagging.”Īt night, on the roof garden of her apartment, after a bad day at work, Louisa is seized with grief. She has also joined a “Moving On” circle of bereaved people, where others’ stories are not particularly helpful but interesting. Using money Will left her, she has bought a London flat she has also found a job at an East London airport bar. She has made some constructive efforts, which, though imperfect, show the will to live on. In fact, Louisa seems on the cusp of healing when the novel opens. When her former boyfriend sold a story about her and Will to a tabloid, strangers criticized her for supporting Will in his decision for assisted suicide, which she did with great reluctance and only out of love for him. Her love wasn’t enough to keep him alive, so she feels worthless. Anyone who has suffered the loss of a soulmate knows that a year and a half is not enough time in which to “recover.” The circumstances of Will’s death (assisted suicide in a Swiss clinic) also contributed to Louisa’s slow recovery. Will has been dead only eighteen months when After You opens. Others close to Will have moved on for instance, his father has divorced, remarried and is about to become a father again. Instead, she is just keeping her head above water. Louisa, who was in love with Will, feels that their brief time together should have taught her something that would enable her to live a full, creative, wonderful life as a memorial to him.
The theme of After You is the difficulty of moving on after bereavement. Significant information from the earlier novel is worked smoothly into the narrative in a way that maximizes suspense. Well structured, with much dramatic tension, After You can stand alone, independent of Me Before You. New York Times book reviewer, Liesl Schellinger wrote of Me Before You: “When I finished this novel I didn’t want to review it, I wanted to reread it.” High praise indeed!Īfter You has many strengths, including an important theme and a compassionate, capable central character who follows her instincts in the face of unsolicited advice. Jojo Moyes’s new novel, After You, is a sequel to her 2012 best seller, Me Before You, centring on Louisa Clark, a caregiver in her twenties, whose life is changed through knowing Will Traynor, a quadriplegic.
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