I read this beautiful looking book in one sitting. I didn’t set out to, but I couldn’t put it down. It’s not a long story, but by the time I had finished my heart had broken in that way that makes you look around and appreciate what you have right where you are. This is the love story of Ambrose Zephyr and his wife Zappora Ashkenazi, who have been happily married for a long time. One day, Ambrose is given one month to live and this story is what he and Zappora, known as Zipper, do with those days.

This could have turned into something awful, but instead the anguish of love without hope seems real and their story is not sentimental trash, but rather an exquisite list of what is important. They use the alphabet as their backdrop and as we know, this is the beginning of language and the end. A perfect, clever read.