Some Bright Nowhere - Large Print by Ann Packer (Paperback)

About the Book

"Eliot and his wife Claire have been happily married for nearly four decades. They've raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the inevitable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and it's time to gather loved ones and prepare for the inevitable. Over the years of Claire's illness, Eliot has willingly--lovingly--shifted into the role of caregiver, appreciating the intimacy and tenderness that comes with a role even more layered and complex than the one he performed as a devoted husband. But as he focuses on settling into what will be their last days and weeks together, Claire makes an unexpected request that leaves him reeling. In a moment, his carefully constructed world is shattered"--

Book Synopsis

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

"Extraordinary. . . . This novel about marriage and friendship and life and dying is a marvel."--Elin Hilderbrand

"A moving meditation on love's many forms and how a marriage can surprise you--right to the end."--People

What if your partner's dying wish broke your heart?

How well do we know the deepest wishes of those we love dearly?

Eliot and his wife, Claire, have been happily married for nearly four decades. They've raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and have weathered the unavoidable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and she makes an unexpected request that leaves Eliot reeling. Confronted by a profound turning point in his marriage and his life, Eliot grapples with the man and husband he's been, in a novel that explores the precious gifts and unexpected costs of truly loving someone, and the fears and desires we experience as the end of life draws near.

Review Quotes

"This beautifully written story is going to get you thinking about some things that really matter. The story leaves you questioning the obligations of marriage and the difference between male and female friendships, and one of the most significant of questions: How do you want to spend your last days?" -- Oprah Winfrey
"We stay in the mystery of this couple, with its shades and shifts. And in the final pages, with their small, quiet turns, we have the readerly satisfaction of a good ending, that elusive and beckoning goal." --The New York Times
"Packer sketches the nuances of [Claire and Eliot's] love with a devastating sharpness, poignantly exploring the challenges of facing death with grace." -- The Washington Post
"Packer's gorgeous, deeply involving novel is a suspenseful and radiant reckoning with love, sorrow, and the everlasting mystery of death." - Booklist (starred review)
"A rich, splintered narrative that 'illuminate[s] the unexpected depths of the commonplace.'"-- NPR.org
"Readers already know Ann Packer for her acutely sensitive novels of families in crisis, and her latest, Some Bright Nowhere, . . . takes on the anguish of a long-married couple whose deathbed conversations raise profound questions about love, commitment, and sacrifice." -- The Boston Globe
"I couldn't stop reading this heartbreaking, heart-expanding novel, and I wept at the end. Ann Packer writes with courage, humor and insight about what it means to be fully human and what we owe the people we love most. Unforgettable." - J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs and Friends and Strangers
"Some Bright Nowhere is a devastating novel that miraculously floats with the light and life it carries. I read it feverishly; I lived and mourned with its characters." - Aysegül Savas, author of Long Distance and The Anthropologists
"Some Bright Nowhere is a novel that draws you in deeply and holds you there. Ann Packer writes absorbingly about couples, together and apart, and about love, friendship, and the inevitability of saying goodbye. This is a heartbreaking novel that actually made me happy--happy to have known these characters and watched them work through the puzzle at the heart of the story, and to have lived with them in their world as long as I did. It's a wonderful book." - Meg Wolitzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Female Persuasion
"A novel so psychologically insightful it feels dangerous, written in prose beautiful enough to get you drunk. Packer is at the height of her powers here, exploring terrain that feels distinctly new. A profoundly feminist book about the negotiations between men and women in marriage, about the work of caretaking, and about the pain and compromise of loving. A triumph." - Rufi Thorpe, author of Margo's Got Money Troubles

"One of the most emotionally truthful novels I've read in years. Penetrating, humane, funny and wise. One of those rare books that once you've finished, comes with you for life." -- Rachel Joyce, author of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

"Some Bright Nowhere is a searing and profoundly moving portrait of a marriage in extremis. Packer renders the untenable with such exquisite and aching clarity that the reading of this novel is as if living it." -- Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Dog of the North