Letters For Emily

I just read one of the best books. If you liked Tuesdays with Morrie you will LOVE this book. I could not put it down until it was finished.

From Publishers Weekly
In this tearjerker of a debut novel, author Wright delves into a family's struggle with a dying parent's mental illness, a marriage breakup and a mysterious legacy left for a seven-year-old granddaughter. Widower Harry Whitney is old and dying. Alzheimer's disease is taking its toll, and he wants only two things to die with dignity and to be remembered as the good man he once was, not as the drooling, cranky old coot he is becoming. His children are estranged, their marriages on the rocks, and his only true friend is his granddaughter, Emily. After Harry dies, his daughter-in-law, Laura, finds three identical homemade books filled with Harry's poems and stories. As she and Emily discover, each poem and story contains a secret, coded password linked to computer files. The files each hold a special letter to Emily confessions, revelations, advice, even a hint of hidden gold. After Harry's son and daughter read the letters, too, they begin to realize that Harry was a pretty amazing father after all. Wright's word picture of old Harry slowly dying and knowing it is powerful and gripping, as are his vivid portrayals of nursing homes, adult children making tough decisions for elderly parents and the insensitivity of the medicare system. His melodramatic characterizations of husbands and wives involved in divorce proceedings are less successful, but Harry's letters to Emily are eloquent enough to make this a worthwhile read overall.


Reviewer: Vesta Irene (the Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

Harry enjoyed writing stories and poems before the Alzheimer's. Now he writes as much as he can during his few daily moments of lucidity. He has family, but it's Emily, who comes by and visits with her mother, that he loves the best. It's Emily he's going to miss.

After his death Emily's parents search through his things looking for important documents, but instead they find a book of his poems and they discover a hidden message in the first poem, then more. The messages lead to hidden files on Harry's computer. Each file is a letter to Emily and that's all I'm going to say about this extremely wonderful book that made me cry.

If you don't read anything else this year, you should at least read "Letters for Emily." It will warm your heart, bring tears to your eyes and joy to your soul. This novel gets five big, bright stars from me.