Twelve Months and a Day

Description

People die. Love doesn't. 'A bitter-sweet pang in my heart' Monique Roffey 'A beautiful book. Insanely romantic and utterly convincing' Julie Myerson 'A wonderful and inventive novel, sorrowful and hopeful in equal measure. It was a true pleasure to read' Miranda Cowley Heller 'Louisa Young is the great chronicler of romantic love and the pain of its loss' Linda Grant 'Heart-stoppingly romantic... A lovely, moving, ultimately hopeful read' Mirror 'What a writer... so beautifully earthed in the everyday. Terrific' Elizabeth Buchan 'A modern day Truly Madly Deeply... Rasmus and Roisin both lose their partners, but the ghosts of Nico and Jay stay, unable to leave their loved ones alone as the broken-hearted pair find comfort in each other. Beautifully written, this is a haunting love story - literally' Best magazine, Must-Reads 'A skilfully calibrated love-after-death tale, it's a four course feast of hearts broken, hearts mended, of songs, laughter, old regrets and fresh desire, that demands a major film deal' Patrick Gale 'A wonderful novel, charming and surprising, filled with loss and its triumphant opposites' Susie Boyt 'Thoughtful, philosophical and clever, it is also funny, and full of poetry, and powered by an unflagging and irresistible belief in the redemptive power of love' Perspectives magazine Rasmus and Jay, Roisin and Nico - two beautiful, ordinary love stories, cut short by death. Jay and Nico don't even believe in ghosts, yet they seem to be... still here. Still in love with Rasmus and Roisin. And maddeningly powerless. Both are incapable of leaving the living alone: Jay plays matchmaker, convinced that Rasmus and Roisin can heal each other; Nico, plagued by jealousy, doesn't agree. Rasmus and Roisin are just trying to navigate their newly widowed lives. But all four of them are thinking the same thing: what is love, after death? What is it for? And what are we to do with it?

Louisa Young was a journalist for some years. Her first book was A Great Task of Happiness (1995), the life of Kathleen Bruce, her grandmother, the sculptor and wife of Scott of the Antarctic. She followed that with her Egyptian trilogy of novels: Baby Love (which was listed for the Orange Prize), Desiring Cairo and Tree of Pearls. They were followed by The Book of the Heart, a cultural history of our most symbolic organ. She has also published a trilogy of children's novels, written with her ten-year-old daughter under the pseudonym Zizou Corder. Her most recent novel, The Heroes' Welcome is a follow-up to the 2011 bestseller My Dear, I Wanted to Tell You, which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award 2011 and the Wellcome Book Prize, was a Richard and Judy Book Club choice, and the first ever winner of the Galaxy Audiobook of the Year. She lives in London with her daughter.

'Sweetly comic yet deeply moving... Anybody who loves the film Ghost will feel the same way about this wonderful novel, which asks what happens when people cease to live - but love does not' Daily Mail 'A modern day Truly Madly Deeply... Rasmus and Roisin both lose their partners, but the ghosts of Nico and Jay stay, unable to leave their loved ones alone as the broken-hearted pair find comfort in each other. Beautifully written, this is a haunting love story - literally' Best magazine, Must-Reads 'A beautiful book. Insanely romantic and utterly convincing' Julie Myerson 'Heart-stoppingly romantic... A lovely, moving, ultimately hopeful read' Mirror 'Twelve Months and a Day is poignant and sad as well as funny and beautifully written and imagined... You will fall in love again as you read this clever book ... Hugely engaging and readable. A bitter-sweet pang in my heart as it ended. A page-turner' Monique Roffey 'A wonderful novel, charming and surprising, filled with loss and its triumphant opposites' Susie Boyt 'A wonderful and inventive novel, sorrowful and hopeful in equal measure. It was a true pleasure to read' Miranda Cowley Heller 'A skilfully calibrated love-after-death tale, it's a four course feast of hearts broken, hearts mended, of songs, laughter, old regrets and fresh desire, that demands a major film deal' Patrick Gale 'Louisa Young is the great chronicler of romantic love and the pain of its loss' Linda Grant 'Thoughtful, philosophical and clever, it is also funny, and full of poetry, and powered by an unflagging and irresistible belief in the redemptive power of love' Perspectives magazine 'What a writer. A raw and beautiful exposition on grief and loss but so beautifully earthed in the everyday. Terrific' Elizabeth Buchan 'Beautifully written, this is a haunting love story - literally' Best magazine