Almost Life. Gift Edition

Reading this book lets you accompany two remarkeable women navigating through life for around 30 years! The story tells us about the special bond between them marked by true love and deep longing for each other. Challenged by difficulties that many queer people might experience in everyday life, being in a relationship seems impossible ... or not?

Kiran Millwood Hargrave captures the tenderness of young love and the weight of time with remarkable grace, making every reunion, memory, and missed opportunity feel deeply personal. It is a novel about the lives we live, the lives we imagine, and the people who shape us long after they are gone. Quietly devastating and exquisitely written, this novel shines in its portrayal of how a first love can stay with us forever. Two months spent in a sun-drenched, summery Paris give way to decades of heartache, longing, and the quiet hope of what might have been.

At first, I thought that 'Almost Life' had the potential to the lesbian equivalent to Normal People, but then it turned out to be so much more. Set in France and England, it tells the story of Laure and Erica who fall in love on a hot summer day : Their love a riddle that none of them is fully able to solve. The novel brings us to the depth of friendship, love and grief. As we follow Laure and Erica through the different stages of their lives, we learn what it means to love and to lose. A bitter sweet love story with an ending that has left me in tears.

Addictive read! This one situationship you can somehow never let go that defines and haunts you (almost) all of your life. Hargrave does reproduce some stereotypical aspects of queerness but the book has a good pace and I enjoyed the writing style, especially Laures parts.