Every Story Is a Love Story - by Imbolo Mbue Hardcover

Book Synopsis

From the New York Times bestselling author of Behold the Dreamers, a captivating novel about sorrow, forgiveness, and the astonishing ways that love can bloom among the ruins

What if I'd never gotten into that car? What if I'd pulled out of the driveway five minutes earlier, or ten minutes later?

Three years ago, Wolo's pregnant wife was killed in a tragic car accident. In an instant, the great love of his life was gone, and so was their beautiful future: the twins they were expecting, the PhD she was on the cusp of finishing, and house they'd just bought in New Jersey. In the face of a loss that seemed insurmountable, Wolo has slowly rebuilt a semblance of a life: he goes to work, hangs out with a small circle of friends, and fends off the matchmaking efforts of the older women in his family. The grief that dogged him has, with time, become a little gentler.

Until a letter arrives one day, unbidden, threatening to upend his life once again. It is from Victoria, the woman who was behind the wheel that terrible day. Wolo's pastor tells him the letter is the work of the devil; his mother expressly forbids him from making further mention of it; his father's second wife calls, from Cameroon, to tell him to destroy it. But Wolo ponders it for days, and ultimately agrees to meet with the woman who killed his wife. When he does, the compassion and deep remorse of the woman affects him in ways he had never imagined, and he begins to wonder if the long road to healing can be shared.

What do we owe to those who have hurt us? Are we defined by our worst moments and our deepest regrets? And, more than anything, can forgiveness ease our suffering? Moving and full of life, Every Story is a Love Story charts the uneven path from heartbreak to hope; from love lost to love found.

About the Author

IMBOLO MBUE is the author of the New York Times bestseller Behold the Dreamers, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was an Oprah's Book Club selection. Her second novel, How Beautiful We Were, about a fictional African village's fight against an American oil company, was named by the New York Times as "One of the 10 Best Books" of 2021. A native of Limbe, Cameroon, Mbue lives in New York.