What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir

What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir - Paperback

$18.99
$18.99
Skip to product information
What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir
  • What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir
What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir - Paperback

What Comes Next and How to Like It: A Memoir - Paperback

by Abigail Thomas
$18.99
$18.99

Book Overview

by Abigail Thomas (Author)

The New York Times bestseller from the beloved author of A Three Dog Life--an exhilarating, superbly written memoir on friendship, family, creativity, tragedy, and the richness of life: "If you only read one book this year, make it this one" (Ann Patchett).

In her bestselling memoir A Three Dog Life, Abigail Thomas wrote about the devastating loss of her husband. In What Comes Next and How to Like It, "a keenly observed memoir...Thomas writes of the changes aging brings us all and of coping through love: of family, dogs, a well-turned phrase. She is superb company" (People).

Thomas was startled to overhear herself described as "a nice old lady with a tattoo," because she thinks of herself as not nice, not old, nor a lady. But she has wondered: what comes next? What comes after the death of a spouse? What form does a lifelong friendship take after deepest betrayal? How does a mother cope with her child's dire illness? Or the death of a cherished dog?

And how to like it? How to accept, appreciate, enjoy? How to find solace and pleasure? How to sustain and be sustained by our most trusted, valuable companions? At its heart, What Comes Next and How to Like It is about the complicated friendship between Thomas and a man she met thirty-five years ago--a rich bond that has lasted through marriages, child-raising, and the vicissitudes and tragedies of life. "After all," she writes, "there are those people we love, and then there are those we recognize. These are the unbreakable connections."

Exquisitely observed, lush with sentences you will read over and over again, What Comes Next and How to Like It "is a beautifully felt, deeply moving memoir, the best work yet by a woman who has already done some of the best work in the field. Abigail Thomas is the Emily Dickinson of memoirists, and so much of this book's wisdom is between the lines and in the white spaces. It may only take you two days to read, but the impact will stay with you for a long, long time" (Stephen King). This is a glorious guide to living imperfectly and exuberantly.

Author Biography

Abigail Thomas worked as both a book editor and book agent before writing her first short story collection, Getting Over Tom. Her second and third books An Actual Life, and Herb's Pajamas, were works of fiction. Her memoir, A Three Dog Life, was named one of the Best Books of the Year by The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post. She is also author of the memoirs Safekeeping, Thinking About Memoir, and What Comes Next and How to Like It. The daughter of renowned science writer Lewis Thomas (The Lives of a Cell), Thomas has four children, twelve grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. She lives in Woodstock, New York, with her dogs.

Number of Pages: 256
Dimensions: 0.5 x 8 x 5.2 IN
Publication Date: April 19, 2016
ISBN9781476785066
Author Abigail Thomas
PublisherScribner Book Company
GenreBiography
FormatPaperback
PublishedApril 2016
LanguageENG- English
Pages256
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography Nonfiction

1% fer Each of the Seven Seas

Every purchase sends 7% of our profits to The Ocean Cleanup. No fine print, no opt-in — just how we sail.

Whoever Ye Be, Welcome Aboard

Queer lit, music, art, philosophy, fiction — stories for every kind of soul. Come as ye are, matey.

More by Abigail Thomas

Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing

Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing - Paperback

Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing - Paperback

By Abigail Thomas

About Abigail Thomas

Abigail Thomas is the author of the novel An Actual Life and the story collections Getting Over Tom and Herb's Pajamas. She lives with her husband in New York City, where she teaches in the M.F.A. writing program at the New School.

You may also like