Description
Have you read the book that everyone’s talking about?
‘If I could give this book 10 stars I would’ (Reader review)
‘This book touched my soul’ (Reader review)
‘I could not put it down. What a story. What a storyteller’ (Reader review)
‘This is in my top five books of all time. Absolutely incredible’ (Reader review)
‘I have never felt so emotionally wrapped up in characters in a book’ (Reader review)
Powerful, uplifting and full of hope, AFTER THE END is the most moving book you’ll read this year – from number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh
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Max and Pip are the strongest couple you know. Only now they’re facing the most important decision of their lives – and they don’t agree. With the consequences of an impossible choice threatening to devastate them both, nothing will ever be the same again.
But anything can happen after the end . . .
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‘The most moving book you’ll read this year’ LISA JEWELL
‘Life-affirming . . . richly drawn’ SUNDAY TIMES
‘Compelling and clever, tender and true. I can’t stop thinking about it’ LIANE MORIARTY
‘Heart-wrenching . . . an absolute must-read’ MIKE GAYLE
‘Put this on the top of your list. You won’t regret it’ JANE CORRY
‘One of the most moving stories I have ever read. It’s perfect’ JOANNA CANNON
Tracey Harriman (verified owner) –
Max and Pip are the parents of a young child, Dylan. Dylan is much loved and much wanted. He is the heart and soul of his parents’ lives. He is their world. He also has highly complex special needs and he has spent many weeks in hospital connected to a ventilator.
Max and Pip are a couple who have gone through what would be unimaginable to most parents. Watching their son go through the trauma of major surgery then to be bound to a hospital bed, unable to so much as breathe without help. The stress that could have broken a couple only made them closer. Until now.
At not even three years old, this toddler is a fighter. The time has come for his ventilator to be removed and after managing for several days without it, it seems he really is winning this battle. But Dylan is far from out of the woods. His parents’ hopes turn to despair when they are told the hospital feels it is in Dylan’s best interest to withhold treatment.
Now the couple are on opposite sides. One of them agrees with the Drs. One wants to try alternative treatment that may prolong Dylan’s life.
This is a truly heartbreaking story. As a parent I can’t (and frankly don’t want to!) imagine the intensity of emotions that Max and Pip would be facing. They would be too raw, too real and too everything. Reading this story made me want to go and hold on to my own son and not let go… and he’s nineteen (and I can guarantee it would be in no way appreciated).
There is a triangle of sides to this story and Mackintosh tells them all with sensitivity and empathy. Max and Pip, despite their opposing views, are both fighting desperately for the best interests of their son. They just differ in their definition of what ‘best interest’ actually means. And we have Dr Khalili. As a Dr she needs to be dispassionate and objective in her opinions, but how is that possible when talking about withdrawing treatment that will ultimately lead to the death of a child.
The fight isn’t just across a hospital bed. The fight is taken to court where a judge listens to the opinions of parents and medical experts and, ultimately, the final decision is his alone.
My mind kept wavering throughout the story. What would be the right decision? Who is taking the wrong road? But that’s what makes the situation so tragic. The lack of black and white. There is no moral high ground. There is no definitive right answer. I would not have wanted to be that judge.
There is a sliding doors moment in this book, which turns, what was already a damn good book, into something more. It’s a brilliant inclusion by Mackintosh, I rarely talk out loud when reading, but jolted my mother out of her nap by exclaiming “oooh, clever!”
Intense, heartbreaking and real. A story you can’t help but be drawn in to. A story you will be willing to have a happy ending.
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
KathVBtn –
SPOILERS – this is such an unusual book to review, a heartbreaking read and so well written.
We first meet Max and Pip and their young son Dylan when he is in hospital with a complex set of needs, and you can feel the trauma and intense stress for them at the time.
Unfortunately Dylan’s condition doesn’t improve, and the second part of the story hinges on what would happen to the family f a) Dylan was sent to America for completely new treatment or b) if he stays with the treatment already prescribed. The twists and turns keep you hooked and wring your emotions with every page. You switch between supporting the parents and questioning them in a heartbeat.
Well worth reading but very different from her other more traditional crime fiction