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Published Jun 2009
336 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Publication Information
With perfect pitch for the humor and heartbreak of everyday life, debut author Julie Buxbaum has fashioned a heroine who will be instantly recognizable to anyone who has loved and lost and loved again.
When twenty-nine-year-old Manhattan attorney Emily Haxby ends her happy relationship just as her boyfriend is about to propose, she can’t explain to even her closest friends why she did it. But somewhere beneath her independent exterior, Emily knows her breakup with Andrew has less to do with him and more to do with...her. "It's like you get pleasure out of breaking your own heart," her best friend Jess tells her.
As the holidays loom and Emily contemplates whether she made a huge mistake, the rest of her world begins to unravel. She’s assigned to a multimillion-dollar lawsuit where she must defend the very values she detests by a boss who can't keep his hands to himself… her Grandpa Jack, the person she cares most about in the world, is losing it, while her emotionally distant father has left her to cope alone…and underneath it all, memories of her deceased mother remind her that love doesn’t last forever.
How this brave young woman finally faces the fears that have long haunted her is the great achievement of this marvelous first novel, written with authority, grace, and wisdom.
"Harvard law grad Buxbaum makes an appealing debut with this tale of Yale law graduate Emily Haxby, eager to break through the emotional and professional ties that bind her." - Publishers Weekly
"Starred Review. You'll want to keep reading all night." - Library Journal
"The real pleasure of this book isn't to be found in moments of high comedy but in the voice of the slightly self-deprecating, slightly sardonic narrator, wise to the world but not yet to herself. What's important is that she's willing to pick her way toward clarity, one difficult step at a time. That a tale about a modern young woman who squarely confronts her garden-variety challenges can feel this fresh is striking." - The Washington Post
This information about The Opposite of Love was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Indy Flore
Julie Buxbaum is the New York Times best selling author of Tell Me Three Things, her young adult debut, What to Say Next and most recently, Hope and Other Punchlines. She's also the author of two critically acclaimed novels for adults: The Opposite of Love and After You. Her work has been translated into twenty-five languages. Julie's writing has appeared in various publications, including The New York Times. She is a former lawyer and graduate of Harvard Law School and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, two children, and more books than is reasonable.
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