Many people my age have been put off by the novels of Anne Tyler as Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant was set as high-school required reading in the 80s. This is not to say that the aforementioned novel is bad – far from it. I am a huge fan of Dinner and I’ve never understood why she has been unpopular with some of my peers. My school luckily (or sadly, whichever way you want to look at it) didn’t set it as part of my syllabus. I was denied the writing of Anne Tyler in my teenage years, discovering her at a later age, and after my initial reading of her I went on a binge, reading six of her novels almost consecutively. Her writing conveys a joyous love of the everyday and the everyman, and The Beginner’s Goodbye, her nineteenth novel, is no exception in this respect.

Aaron and his sister, Nandina, are publishers. They publish (quite unsellable) vanity titles along with ‘Beginner’s Guides’, which are the bread and butter of the business. Aaron’s crippled on one side of his body, due to childhood illness, and apart from physical limitations, lives a fairly normal life with his wife, Dorothy. When the oak tree in their backyard crashes through the house, killing Dorothy, staunchly independent Aaron finally capitulates and goes to live with Nandina until his house is rebuilt. Aaron begins to have visions of his recently deceased wife standing out on the street and loitering in public places and it’s not long afterwards that they start conversing. These interactions guide Aaron through his grief at this very tough time.

This heartbreaking story is imbued with beauty and bittersweet melancholy but, this being an Anne Tyler novel, it is spiked with a sly sense of humour and wisdom.

Jason Austin is from Readings Carlton