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A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir
by Delia Ephron
The bestselling, beloved writer of romantic comedies like You've Got Mail tells her own late-in-life love story, complete with a tragic second act and joyous resolution.
Delia Ephron had struggled through several years of heartbreak. She'd lost her sister, Nora, and then her husband, Jerry, both to cancer. Several months after Jerry's death, she decided to make one small change in her life—she shut down his landline, which crashed her internet. She ended up in Verizon hell.
She channeled her grief the best way she knew: by writing a New York Times op-ed. The piece caught the attention of Peter, a Bay Area psychiatrist, who emailed her to commiserate. Recently widowed himself, he reminded her that they had shared a few dates fifty-four years before, set up by Nora. Delia did not remember him, but after several weeks of exchanging emails and sixties folk songs, he flew east to see her. They were crazy, utterly, in love.
But this was not a rom-com: four months later she was diagnosed with AML, a fierce leukemia.
In Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron enchants as she seesaws us between tears and laughter, navigating the suicidal lows of enduring cutting-edge treatment and the giddy highs of a second chance at love. With Peter and her close girlfriends by her side, with startling clarity, warmth, and honesty about facing death, Ephron invites us to join her team of warriors and become believers ourselves.
"Playwright and novelist Ephron balances profound sorrow with unconditional love in this radiant account of the "many left turns, some perilous, some wondrous" that her life took following her husband's death...Readers will be swept away by this triumphant story." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Ephron, whose career includes humor, plays, screenplays, and novels, chronicles a series of 'left turns, some perilous, some wondrous,' that began with the death of her sister Nora in 2012, followed a few years later by the death of her husband of nearly four decades...Even more endearing than you'd think. Older readers will feel cheered by the story—and the fact that she remembers it all." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"In her new memoir, Ephron will make readers feel, and with her short sentences and matter-of-fact voice, she'll make readers laugh, swoon, cringe, and cry, sometimes all within the same section of writing... With poetic writing, strong characterization, and a powerful love story, Ephron's memoir takes readers on a journey of loss, pain, hope, and perseverance." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Only someone with a heart of stone could resist the charms of Delia Ephron's tender, moving story of late-life love and illness. Ephron writes with singular transparency of her treatment for leukemia—the same disease that killed her sister seven years earlier—and the unbearable terror and pain she suffered. But Ephron is at heart a writer naturally drawn to light who finds joy and humor even in life's darkest corners. This wonderful memoir is an ode to the enduring power of love and friendship." - Joanna Rakoff, bestselling author of My Salinger Year
"Oh, huge-hearted Delia Ephron! I loved this book. It's a memoir about grief and illness, but it's also basically a love letter to her people, and it's a gorgeous one. Because here is someone who chooses joy over and over again—who chooses friendship and love, like a fountain of gratitude that turns despair into a glittery, rainbow-scattering spray of light. Her lucky friends! Forgive yourself for wishing you were one of them." - Catherine Newman, author of Catastrophic Happiness: Finding Joy in Childhood's Messy Years
This information about Left on Tenth was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Delia Ephron is a bestselling author, screenwriter, essayist, and playwright. Her novels include the New York Times bestseller Siracusa and The Lion Is In. She has written books of essays (Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.)), books of humor (How To Eat Like A Child), and books for children and young adults. Her movie credits include You've Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, This is My Life, Michael, and Hanging Up (based on her novel). Her play, "Love, Loss, and What I Wore," written with her sister Nora Ephron (based on the book by Ilene Beckerman), ran for two years off Broadway and has been performed internationally.
Author Interview
Link to Delia Ephron's Website
Name Pronunciation
Delia Ephron: Deelia EF-ruhn
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