Synopses & Reviews
The complexities of a friendship. The unexplored doubts of a marriage. And the redemptive power of literature...Julie Buxbaum, the acclaimed author of
The Opposite of Love, delivers a haunting, gloriously written novel about love, family, and the secrets we hide from each otherand ourselves.
It happened on a tree-lined street in Notting Hill to a woman who seemed to have the perfect life. Ellie Lerners best friend, Lucy, was murdered in front of her young daughter. And, as best friends do, Ellie dropped everythingher marriage, her job, her life in the Boston suburbsto travel to London and pick up the pieces of Lucys life. While Lucys husband, Greg, copes with his grief by retreating into himself, eight-year-old Sophie has simply stopped speaking.
Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As the two spendhours exploring the novels winding passageways, its story of hurt, magic, and healing blooms around them. But so, too, do Lucys secretssome big, some smallsecrets Lucy kept hidden, even from her best friend. Over a summer in London, as Ellie peels back the layers of her friends life, shes forced to confront her own as well: the marriage she left behind, the loss shed hoped to escape. And suddenly Ellies carefully constructed existence is spinning out of control in a chain of events that will transform her lifeand those around her forever. A novel that will resonate in the heart of anyone whos had a best friend, a love lost, or a past full of regrets, After You proves once again the unique and compelling talent of Julie Buxbaum.
About the Author
Julie Buxbaum is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard Law School. The author of The Opposite of Love, she currently lives in London.
Reading Group Guide
1. Toward the beginning of the novel, Ellie says, “Last Thursday, when Lucy stopped breathing, there is not doubt a part of me died too. The history of who I am–the accumulation of a million memories from a thirty-one-year friendship, the knowledge that at least one person in the world could see me, that at least one person in the world would always know me–has been washed empty.” Do you think we lose parts of ourselves when we lose those closest to us? Ellie seems to believe that Lucy truly knew and understood her, but do you think that Ellie ever really knew Lucy? Can we ever know the people we love the most?
2. Ellie talks about having two vows in direct conflict: her wedding vows and her commitment to being Sophies godmother. Her relationships with both Phillip and Sophie change dramatically through the course of novel. Do you think in the end she keeps or betrays those vows?
3. Why is Ellie so willing to leave her own life in Boston to pick up the pieces Lucy has left behind? Would you do the same thing for your best friend? Ellie claims she is only “doing the right thing,” but Phillip thinks that even Lucy wasnt selfish enough to expect Ellie to drop everything and move to London. Who do you sympathize with more?
4. Ellie talks a lot about the various drafts of Lucy and describes her recollections of her best friend as “still and constant, memories an unfolded map, like the timeline in Sophies history textbook.” What does she mean here? Will her memories stay like that? What about Sophies memories of her mother?
5. Why does Greg have so much trouble looking at Sophie? And do you think the fact that Lucy was going to leave him anyway makes her death easier or harder on him?
6. Sophie and Ellie turn to the childrens classic The Secret Garden for comfort throughout the novel. Why do you think they are soothed by this particular book? Why do both want to play Mary when they playact the novel?
7. In the end, it seems as if Ellies decision to go back to Boston mirrors Lucys decision to move to Paris. Is this a fair assessment? Do you judge one more harshly than the other? Why?
8. Do you empathize with Lucys desire for a fresh start or a do-over? If not, do you think you would feel differently about her choices if she were a man?
9. Why is the book titled After You? Who does the “You” refer to?
10. The readers view of Lucy is necessarily limited to Ellies perspective because the story is told in Ellies first-person voice. Do you think the reader gets a full sense of who Lucy was as a person or are we only allotted a snapshot? And if its the latter, do you think this is intentional? Effective?
11. Ellie often uses words to suggest that they are all “acting” or “pretending” that things are normal to get through the days. Is this a common coping mechanism in the wake of loss?
12. Ellie, Lucy, and Jane all seem to be, at various times, women on the run. What are they each running from? What are they each most afraid of?
13. At one point, Ellie says: “If our lives were a movie, this would be the scene where the music changes….Wed get to live happily ever after, in this pastel-colored house in Notting Hill, to swelling crescendo. A simple, natural, and best of all, neat resolution. Sophie gets a mother, I get a child, Greg gets a wife. All solved in five minutes or less. But this is not a movie, and things are never simple.” Would an ending where Greg and Ellie fall in love have been satisfying or believable? As readers, are we programmed to yearn for those tidy endings? And do you agree with Ellie that “things are never simple”?