And Every Morning The Way Home Gets Longer And Longer by Fredrik Backman

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove, My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry, and Britt-Marie Was Here comes an exquisitely moving portrait of an elderly man’s struggle to hold on to his most precious memories, and his family’s efforts to care for him even as they must find a way to let go.

“Isn’t that the best of all life’s ages, an old man thinks as he looks at his grandchild, when a boy is just big enough to know how the world works but still young enough to refuse to accept it.”

Grandpa and Noah are sitting on a bench in a square that keeps getting smaller every day. The square is strange but also familiar, full of the odds and ends that have made up their lives: Grandpa’s work desk, the stuffed dragon that Grandpa once gave to Noah, the sweet-smelling hyacinths that Grandma loved to grow in her garden.

As they wait together on the bench, they tell jokes and discuss their shared love of mathematics. Grandpa recalls what it was like to fall in love with his wife, what it was like to lose her. She’s as real to him now as the first day he met her, but he dreads the day when he won’t remember her.

Sometimes Grandpa sits on the bench next to Ted, Noah’s father—Ted who never liked math, prefers writing and playing guitar, and has waited his entire life for his father to have time for him, to accept him. But in their love of Noah, they have found a common bond.

Grandpa, Grandma, Ted, and Noah all meet here, in this peculiar space that is growing dimmer and more confusing all the time. And here is where they will learn to say goodbye, the scent of hyacinths in the air, nothing to fear. This little book with a big message is certain to be treasured for generations to come. @goodreads 

MY REVIEW:

5 STARS 

There's a hospital room at the end of a life where someone, right in the middle of the floor, has pitched a green tent. A person wakes up inside it, breathless and afraid, not knowing where he is. A young man sitting next to him whispers:

"Don't be scared."



This is such a sad little story but with BIG heart. And the sad thing is that these things are true. So many people have went through this with family members. My grandma is forgetting things. Life isn't fair.

The little boy Noah is a wonderful child and adult if I read it correctly. He was there for his grandma when she went and he was always there for his grandpa. No matter what was went through with my grandparents or the last grandparent I have left, I feel so lucky to be one of the people to have known and grown up with my grandparents. Being southern we call them, mamaw and papaw. They were my life and they were wonderful and one still is.

I love Noah so much, his character is just so special.

"The amount I love you, Noah," she would tell him with her lips to his ear after she read fairy tales about elves and he was just about to fall asleep, "the sky will never be that big." She wasn't perfect, but she was his. The boy sang to her the night before she died. Her body stopped working before her brain did. For Grandpa it's the opposite.

*sob* I just ....

This is a short novella but it has such an impact. It tells of Noah and his grandpa sitting on that bench with grandma's favorite purple hyacinth's blooming underneath. It tells of grandpa confusing his son Ted with his grandson Noah. It tells of grandpa's memories with grandma. It tells with such emotion and heart that I felt every word said, every scared emotion, every tear I dropped.

Thank you for such a wonderful book about things that are very real. ♥

GOODREADS REVIEW:

 https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1805174014