This melancholic tale questions notions of security and knowledge in relationships. The protagonist, a successful lawyer, dies suddenly leaving behind his wife, his past wives, his lover, his kids and his brother. Each of these people has their own version of his life, his motivations and his passions. Is this enough for a novel? Perhaps, if we don’t think in a traditional way about how a novel should be structured but rather enjoy each heartbreaking vignette for what it is: a voyeristic glimpse into shared moments of happiness and of eventual grief.

Tolstoy said that happy families are all alike but every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way, and ultimately Goodbye Sweetheart is an example of this maxim. It is a work about a family, unhappy in parts, but a family that survives betrayal, grief and in the end endures the most heart-wrenching trial of all: the truth.

Chris Gordon is the Events Manager for Readings. She blogs about food and gardening at Open Space Outside and puts together the food and gardening column for the Readings Monthly.