Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Nov 2022
368 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
"The brilliant author of this brilliant book" will have you laughing and crying as Meredith, after spending three years inside her house, figures out how to rejoin the world one step at a time (Gillian McAllister, author of the Reese's Book Club Wrong Place Wrong Time).
She has a full-time remote job and her rescue cat Fred. Her best friend Sadie visits with her two children. There's her online support group, her jigsaw puzzles and favorite recipes, her beloved Emily Dickinson poems. Also keeping her company are treacherous memories of an unstable childhood and a traumatic event that had sent her reeling.
But something's about to change. First, two new friends burst into her life. Then her long-estranged sister gets in touch. Suddenly her carefully curated home is no longer a space to hide. Whether Meredith likes it or not, the world is coming to her door...
"[S]atisfying...The measured pace keeps the plot moving even as most of the action takes place within Meredith's flat, and the endearing characters offer a sensitive portrayal of what it means to live with mental health issues. The result is a quiet slice-of-life story with heart to spare." - Publishers Weekly
"Alexander creates a winning heroine in Meredith and likable characters in her kind friends; this type of mental illness is not frequently highlighted or discussed, and while Meredith's experience predates the pandemic, there are, of course, echoes of sympathy for those who were isolated at home or who continue to be anxious about leaving their homes for this uncertain world. An optimistic, feel-good novel that might just soothe some post-Covid angst." - Kirkus Reviews
"In a world contending with the mental health fallout from COVID, Meredith is immediately relatable. Executed with care, humor, and grace, this novel pokes at the bubble of solitude to show each of us that suffering has a sense of community and with that, the prospect of optimism." - Library Journal
"I laughed, I cried, and I bowed down to the brilliant author of this brilliant book." - Gillian McAllister, New York Times bestselling author of Wrong Place Wrong Time
"A gorgeous, charming novel...Sweet, moving, funny and hopeful, with a courageous heroine who sweeps you up in her story." - Jennifer Saint, bestselling author of Ariadne
This information about Meredith, Alone 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.
Claire Alexander lives on the west coast of Scotland with her husband and children. She has written for the Washington Post, the Independent, the Huffington Post and Glamour. In 2019, one of her essays was published in the award-winning literary anthology We Got This: Solo Mom Stories of Grit, Heart, and Humor. When she's not writing or parenting, she's on her paddle board, thinking about her next book.
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