Powerful and poetic ... Zgheib never lets Anna’s diagnosis define her but convincingly allows it to inform every decision her character makes. Instead of tying up Anna’s journey with a neat bow, the novel’s resolution is tentative, hopeful, and realistic. Zgheib’s lyrical, dream-like style, the perfect match for Anna’s alternately foggy and focused thought processes, will resonate with fans of Wally Lamb’s and Anne Tyler’s novels and Augusten Burroughs’ memoirs.
Because this novel is intensely character-driven, it would be a disservice not to discuss Zgheib’s careful, tender rendering of Anna ... Zgheib writes with a compassion and an intensity that may scare away some readers, but I believe that her brilliance and authenticity make this book a must-read ... This is not a happy story, but it is a hopeful one, and perhaps the perfect book for anyone feeling alone, depressed or like they have truly lost control.
The novel’s greatest strength is its simplicity. There is no unusually dramatic backstory; Matthias is kind and relentlessly loving; Anna is, in all but her Frenchness, unexceptional. It's a story we've read before; it's moving nonetheless ... A nuanced portrait of a woman struggling against herself.
