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    Left: A Love Story
    Left: A Love Story
    Left: A Love Story
    Audiobook5 hours

    Left: A Love Story

    Written by Mary Hogan

    Narrated by Jane Oppenheimer

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In this beautifully crafted novel from the author of the critically-acclaimed Two Sisters, comes the story of a woman who retreats into a fantasy world on New York City’s Upper West Side as she slowly loses her once whip-smart husband to dementia—perfect for fans of Still Alice.

    When life falls apart, a little fantasy goes a long way…

    It started as a dream vacation in Spain, with Fay and Paul Agarra enjoying all the delights of a European holiday. A respected New York City judge, Paul has always been the man Fay can rely on, no matter what. When he inexplicably disappears from a Barcelona street corner, Fay knows something is terribly wrong. Once reunited, Paul shrugs off the episode as a simple misunderstanding—but Fay suspects her almost perfect life has taken a dark and sudden turn.

    Soon there are more signs that Paul is beginning to change. Bouts of forgetfulness lead to mistakes in the courtroom. Simple tasks cause unexplainable outbursts of anger. Fay’s worst suspicions are realized when she learns her husband—her rock, her love, her everything—is succumbing to the ravages of dementia. 

    As her husband transforms before her very eyes, Fay copes with her fears by retreating into a fantasy life filled with promise instead of pain. In Fay’s invented world, she imagines herself living a glamorous life free from heartache, with a handsome neighbor she barely knows rescuing her from a future she can’t accept. 

    Poignant and beautifully crafted, Left is an unforgettable tale about life’s aching uncertainties—and a woman who discovers that somewhere between hope and reality, an unexpected future will find its way forward.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJun 19, 2018
    ISBN9780062850515
    Author

    Mary Hogan

     Mary Hogan is the bestselling author of Two Sisters and the historical novel, The Woman in the Photo. Previous novels include the young adult titles, The Serious Kiss, Perfect Girl and Pretty Face (HarperCollins). Mary lives in New York City with her husband, actor Robert Hogan, and their Catahoula Leopard rescue dog, Lucy. maryhogan.com

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    Reviews for Left

    3.5/5

    48 ratings20 reviews

    What did you think?

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    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      It could have kept it going a little better. It took me a long time to read this book. I read about half of it and set it down for a year before I finished it yesterday. But it was a nice story and am glad I finally finished it.
    • 3/5
      Fay and Paul have had an intriguing marriage, with both physical and intellectual compatibility. A trip to Spain, that initially delights, brings fear and a sense of foreboding when Fay realizes the very astute, Paul , a Judge, a man of the world, is slipping away into the beginnings of dementia. Her life begins to exist in both its realistic challenges and in her own daydream fantasies of a parallel life. There were very sincere moments here, believable relationships, and a plot that held interest.
    • 4/5
      A wife’s journey as her husband begins to leave her. But not in the way you think. Very well written and very touching. The author’s first hand real life witnessing of this is evidenced by her accurate writing. My only question is who would be the target audience?
    • 4/5
      3.5 He was much younger than her, a respected state supreme Court judge, already married once with a son. He was kind, funny, smart, and from the moment Faye saw Paul, they clicked, married. Now after many years of a successful marriage, Paul surprises her with a trip to Spain. At first things go marvelously, but then she begins to notice little things, and then something major happens.There is such a realistic feel to this book, a honesty that is compelling and heartbreaking. Watching someone you love, leave you unwillingly in body and mind. Caregiving such a demand on the spirit, the emotional toll on the person. Family who try to help but don't understand, and then a granddaughter and a caretaker who have words of wisdom, much needed.The author has watched someone she loves struggle with Alzheimers, and does a wonderful job here conveying the emotional and physical struggle on all involved. A difficult book to read, but one that provides an important insight into this horrific condition.
    • 3/5
      I loved Fay and Paul story of how they met and their relationship. It was a true love one. Although, my issue is that this love and bond they shared was not so easily conveyed to me. In the matter that I was not able to fully embrace them or the story as strongly as I wanted too. For this story, it should be about the characters. I am only basing this off the story and not on the author's life. This book is part memoir/non fiction about the author's marriage. Alzheimer's is a sad disease. It was apparent in this book. It does not just affect the person experiencing Alzheimer's but also the person's loved ones as well. I felt for Fay and her frustration with trying to get help for Paul. It was like she was hitting brick walls. The most powerful sentence in this book was said by Paul when Fay caught a glimpse of her husband in his eyes. He said "I never left".
    • 3/5
      This was a quick book to read. Sad, of course, but like many books of this sort it tries to be uplifting in some small way. Told from the viewpoint of the wife, she wanders off into her own fantasy world to cope with her husband's growing dementia but her fantasies are proved to be no better than her reality. My overriding feeling after reading this book is just how horrible this disease is. ***I received this book through LibraryThing Member Giveaway. The opinion is solely my own."
    • 4/5
      Like the title says, Left is a love story and is told from the main character, Fay's point of view. Fay fell in love with Paul, who is a judge and is 20 years older than her. I finished the book in just a day or so, but it really stuck with me. The story is just about an ordinary woman with a "normal" life. One could really relate. Then she slowly begins to notice odd behavior from her husband. Eventually we discover he has dementia. To cope, Fay begins to imagine a different life she could escape to. The end of the book allows us to see that things may not always be better elsewhere. I would love to read more from this author. I received a complimentary copy as part of the Librarything Early Reviewers program.
    • 1/5
      Paul Agarra, a respected judge, and his much younger wife Fay are on the last day of a trip to Spain. Fay proposes a quick side trip on the way to the airport, but they soon got lost. They pull into a diner so that Fay can use the rest room and ask for directions; Paul will circle around until she comes out. Except that Paul never returns. Frantic, with no money or cell phone (she had left her purse in the car), Fay finally makes her way to the airport, where she finds Paul waiting for her. He insists that going to the airport without her was the logical thing to do, since they were lost and he knew that she was expected to be there. This is one of the first signs that something isn't quite right with Paul, and the rest of the book tracks his slide into Alzheimer's. Fay struggles with the changes while Paul, his children, and his ex-wife refuse to accept his decline--until one night the police find him wandering in the middle of the night.This book has been likened by many to 'Still Alice.' Don't believe it--this one is far inferior. Yes, it's about a smart professional who develops Alzheimer's. But whereas Lisa Genova focused primarily on Alice herself, Hogan's main character is Fay, and I found it extremely hard to empathize with her. She's a vain, shallow, pampered woman who is really full of herself. I got tired of reading about her classy outfits, her constant primping, her flashing diamond earrings at doormen to let them know how important she is, her fantasies about younger men that she expected would fall in love with her, her claims that she looked much younger than her years, her insistence that she had the most perfect husband in the universe, yadda, yadda, yadda. By the time she tried to redeem herself, it was too late for me. It also bothered me that, after Paul suffers a serious shoulder injury, the whole family is ready to blame the surgeon and the hospital for his rapid decline. I have great compassion for families having to deal with a relative suffering from this dreaded disease, but I know that there are much better novels written about the issue, ones that make you care about their dilemma. The only likable character is Lola, the dog. Not recommended.
    • 3/5
      When things go wrong in life, some people retreat into fantasy. Sometimes the life they imagine is very basic and other times it can grow to be an elaborate escape from the reality they are facing. This is the case in Mary Hogan's newest novel, Left: A Love Story.The novel opens with Fay Agarra, the narrator of the story, walking her dog Lola and talking to and about a pre-war building in her New York City neighborhood, a building she's fallen in love with and is fantasizing about moving into "after it was all over" without mentioning what "it" is. The story immediately jumps to Spain and a vacation she took with her husband, the time from which she dates the changes in her life. Fay is 21 years younger than her husband and although she says often that their May-December romance shouldn't have worked, it has been a nearly perfect marriage for 22 years. Paul is a well-respected sitting judge in the city and has an adult son and an annoying ex-wife. Fay is an artist whose Etsy store is finally taking off. They're in Spain for a break from real life and so that Fay can find some more inspiration for her lamp shades. As they are getting ready to leave Spain, something strange happens though. Fay's "there kind of guy" drives off and leaves her, then telling police that she's lost. This turns out to be the first instance of Paul's forgetting, his dismissal of Fay's concerns, and a rather abrupt personality change that comes and goes. Fay is concerned by what she sees as significant changes but when she mentions her fears to her stepson and to Paul's doctor, each of them discounts her observations, suggesting she is imagining things. Only after a fall and surgery change things irreparably, does the truth come out.Fay, as Paul's wife and caretaker, narrates the story, flipping back and forth from the past that led her to where she is and the present where she imagines herself falling into a relationship with a man she's seen in the building she covets. That she has created a whole story about this man---she's dubbed him Blake and invented his entire life out of thin air--and seems to truly believe her invention or maybe just wants to believe it so badly that she is shocked when it turns out to be as far from the truth as possible seems a little odd, as does her obsession with the building this man lives in. This easy belief in her own story, and the fact that Fay is so easily bullied, unsure of her observations about Paul once they are questioned, contribute to her coming off as far younger than she actually is. Her world, until the incident in Spain, seems to have been so charmed that she is incredibly naive and completely blindsided by any hint of trouble. Although Fay narrates her own story, she resolutely steers away from discussing everything going on with Paul as much as she can, escaping into her imaginings rather than detailing the actual day to day with her failing husband. This means that although the novel deals with a very difficult subject, the story as a whole remains mostly quite light and superficial. It does address some of the stresses of being a caretaker but obliquely instead of head-on, making it difficult to connect and sympathize with Fay's character. She almost seems as if she spends the entire book in shock, repeating phrases throughout and focused on inconsequential things rather than bigger issues and concerns. The reader is told about the Agarra's wonderful marriage but never shown it to make it real. Secondary characters, including Paul, are lightly sketched, keeping Fay as the main focus of the story. The book, this tale of a love and marriage slowly fading away, is quite short and a very fast read that many readers will find sweet and affecting.
    • 4/5
      Thanks to the publisher, Wm Morrow, via LibraryThing, for a copy of this novel in exchange for my honest opinion.Mary Hogan is a new author for me. She has written a passionate novel about a happily married couple of 22 years who find themselves coping with the husband's dementia. He is a prominent judge and over 20 years older than his wife and has always been there for her. She's an artist and is overcome with his condition so creates a fantasy world to escape which adds a lot to the story line. Their dog, Lola, is prominent throughout the novel.Since I have done volunteer work with patients suffering from dementia, I have knowledge of how this ravaging disease affects not only the patients, but their caregivers. I found this author did a great job of describing the path of decline for the judge and his wife's reactions to various situations. It's a very difficult situation for both.
    • 4/5
      "Left: A Love Story" is about a married couple, Paul and Fay. Paul is a New York judge who is in denial about being in the early stages of dementia. The story is told from Fay's point of view as she watches her once vibrant husband turning into a stranger and how she tries to deal with it. It was a good story and I enjoyed reading it.***I received this book through LibraryThing Member Giveaway. The opinion is solely my own."
    • 5/5
      Left: A Love Story is a poignant book about watching your beloved fall victim to dementia and decline. It is both affirming of love and heart wrenching. The effects that this process has on family members is well-explored, describing the various reactions of the children and other family. This book is easily read and is written so that you want to continue on to see what happens. I read the book in a day. It flips back and forth between the past and current day, and addresses a coveted apartment building as if it were a lover. I enjoyed the description of the apartment building, as well as the details about the various locations. This is a book that can be difficult to read for its sadness, but I am glad that I read it.
    • 5/5
      Hogan provides a painful but beautiful way to present the issue of Alzheimer's in a novel. She writes from person experience because her father died so recently from the condition. Fay, the judge's young wife, slowly discovers what is happening to her husband but is unable to make anyone else understand. Hogan provides a clever beginning to the book as we watch Fay try to conceive of a future life for herself. It's sad that the book is so accurate in the portrayal of anyone working with someone with Alzheimer's -- the patient's mind has left and the partner has been - left. I liked Fay so much and thought the author probably put a lot of herself into the character.
    • 3/5
      This is a beautiful and poignant love story about a young woman watching the love of her life slowly fall into the depths of dementia. Kudos to all those caretakers out there who decide to care for their loved ones at home. This book made me very sad as my own father developed dementia and unfortunately my sisters and I were not able to take care of him. 3 stars and an extra 1/2 for the caretakers point of view. I won this book from LibraryThing.
    • 4/5
      Left is a beautifully written story about a woman coping with the onset of her husband's dementia. Dotted with touches of humor, and understandably sad at times, the novel made for a quick and enjoyable read.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book and for the most part had sympathy for Faye. I did feel like it ended abit abruptly and at times I was confused as to where I was in the time line. It was interesting to read about this subject though and to see how Faye coped with Paul's decline.
    • 4/5
      I received this book as part of the Early Reviewers program. When Faye and her husband Paul are on vacation and he leaves her behind at a convenience store and heads to the airport, she knows in her gut, that there is something wrong with Paul. As the weeks unfold, Paul changes dramatically until one culminating event changes both lives forever. Left A Love Story is the story of what happens to a relationship when memories are diminished and families are torn apart. A quick, easy read with a big subject keeps readers engulfed in a story too many couples go through. Told with sensitivity, Hogan tells a story that will have the reader wiping tears.
    • 4/5
      I had a hard time at the start of this book. First chapter had me pretty confused. I am so glad I kept going because I was rewarded with an emotional journey thru the awful world of dementia. This book could have been written about my father who passed away 2 years ago from Alzheimer's. The author did an excellent job of showing the reader how confusing and terrifying this disease is for everyone involved. She validated so many of the emotions and thoughts I had while caring for my father. I literally couldn't put this one down and highly recommend it.
    • 5/5
      This was a wonderful book which I read in a day and a half. It was beautifully written and accurately portrayed the difficulties of caring for a loved one with heartbreaking humor. I highly recommend this book
    • 4/5
      This book took me a bit to get into it, but it's a REALLY light read that's a lot shorter than it seems, since the print is very large and all chapters start on the right page. Parts of this story really hit home, since I've had some family members have cognitive issues as they got older. I even learned a couple things about motor function being more connected to cognitive function than I'd realized. If you're looking for a REALLY quick read (under 2 hours for most people, I'd guess) about coping with a loved one heading into dementia, this is a good choice.