All the Beautiful Things You Love
All the Beautiful Things You Love
Elly and Enzo love each other. Elly and Enzo are getting divorced. Now, everything must go.
When Enzo suddenly walks out on Elly after ten years together, she finds herself marooned in an expensive East London flat, surrounded by all their belongings. She is shell-shocked. Inconsolable. She can't bear to look at the objects that she and Enzo collected together, those innocuous items that define the key moments of every relationship. Now she's listing it all on Marketplace: the table they found in Italy. The bike he bought for her birthday. Records, luggage, a vintage velvet couch. Anything that tells a story she'd rather forget. Elly thinks that selling these items to total strangers will help her move on from Enzo and heal her devastated heart. But she's about to get a lot more than she bargained for.
All the Beautiful Things You Love is a vivid and vibrant exploration of the things that bring us together and tear us apart, and those keepsakes that populate the wide-open spaces between where love ends and starts again.
Review
Kate McIntosh
This is not your usual love story. Elly and Enzo break up in the first line of the first paragraph on the first page of the novel, and you know it’s the end for them. Elly now sells items from their apartment on Marketplace. To stay in their expensive London home she needs cash, and getting rid of the things she and Enzo shared feels cathartic. Mostly.
Her bicycle is the first to go. Enzo bought it for Elly and taught her the joy of riding a bike with no hands. Elly passes it on to a deserving young man, and accidentally shares her situation with this total stranger.
Next to go is the framed vinyl of a song called ‘Valentine’, which both Elly and Enzo fell in love with the moment they heard it. It’s their song. (You will need to keep your favourite music-playing device handy whilst reading this book to instantly play the songs that come along, and that are truly a soundtrack to the story).
Himesh buys their Italian dining table and becomes something of a friend. Jane takes the DVD box set of The Sopranos off Elly’s hands over several drinks at Enzo’s favourite drinking hole. We learn more about Enzo as the backstory of a wagon they were going to use at Glastonbury is explained. The 1960s purple Chesterfield couch had been Elly’s mother’s and as Elly sells it to wealthy collector Patrick, he offers advice, and a lot more cash than she originally asked for.
Each character that comes along adds depth and warmth to the tale, and each one helps Elly to move on. Although Elly and Enzo still love each other, we eventually discover what the original break-up argument was about and why they are never, ever, getting back together. Clever, contemporary and fun, despite the heartache, this is the perfect novel for anyone who has ever broken up with that special someone.
This item is in-stock at 4 shops and will ship in 3-4 days
Our stock data is updated periodically, and availability may change throughout the day for in-demand items. Please call the relevant shop for the most current stock information. Prices are subject to change without notice.
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to a wishlist.