Epilogue: A Memoir

From Anne Roiphe, the critically acclaimed author of Fruitful, comes the New York Times bestselling Epilogue, a beautiful memoir about death, life, and widowhood. Roiphe explores what happened when, at age 70, she lost her husband of 40 years. Moving between heartbreaking memories of her marriage and the pressing needs of a new day-to-day routine, Epilogue takes readers on her journey into the unknown world of life after love.

Widowed novelist, near seventy, ex-Park Avenue girl, ex-beatnik, ex-many other things too complicated to list here, loves big parties, summers at the beach, grandchildren, seeks interesting man for dinner and a movie.

Anne Roiphe was not quite seventy years old when her husband of nearly forty years unexpectedly passed away. But it was not until her daughters placed a personal ad in a literary journal that Roiphe began to consider the previously unimagined possibility of a new man. Moving between heartbreaking memories of her marriage and the pressing needs of a new day-to-day routine, Epilogue takes us on her journey into the unknown world of life after love.

Roiphe decides to reenter the dating world. But between new lunches, coffee dates, and e-mail exchanges, she wrestles with an unsettling loneliness. Recollections of marriage evoke complex, unexpected emotions on her journey through grief toward new companionship. In beautifully wrought vignettes, she recalls hailing a cab for the first time and learning to lock and unlock the front door—tasks her husband had always done.

Eloquent and astute, Epilogue tells the story of love rekindled and life remade. Roiphe offers us an elegant literary pastiche not of grief, but of hope and renewal.

“[A] raw, painful, and yet occasionally comic memoir. . . . [Roiphe] isn’t reticent about taking off the bandages and showing us the extent and depth of her injuries. . . . The moving, immeasurably sad story of the aftermath of an irreplaceable relationship.” - New York Times Book Review

“[A] deeply honest memoir. . . . Written in a brief, simple style reminiscent of a personal journal. . . . [Roiphe] poignantly shares the roller-coaster ride of grief. . . . Roiphe honestly reveals the painful yet predictable thoughts and emotions of grieving.” - Philadelphia Inquirer

“[Roiphe’s] willingness to expose her uncertainties is brave and moving. . . . A reader may cry, too.” - Boston Globe

“Each word seems like the individual beat of a human heart. . . . As fragile and as haunting as memory itself.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“In poignant flashes of everyday moments and memories, Roiphe tells an unflinching and unsentimental story of widowhood’s stupefying disquiet, of surviving love and living on.” - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A searing memoir. . . . [Roiphe] celebrates the wondrous and paralyzing nature of life. . . . Roiphe fights hard to walk tall. . . . Epilogue is an elegant case study. Ultimately it’s a beautifully written tale of a life reclaimed.” - USA Today

“Radiates with raw emotion and is both painful to read and terrifying to consider. . . . No one can really prepare a woman for this passage in life, but Roiphe’s luminous memoir is a beacon of help and, ultimately, hope.” - Booklist