![]() ![]() Although there are many tensions in the novel (between siblings, between couples, between parents and children), the original tension was between mother-in-law and daughter-in law, caused by the gulf between their two losses, by the different ways they grieve. That idea was the seed from which The World Without You grew. Joshua Henkin ’s newest novel Morningside Heights was published by Pantheon in June 2021 and named an Editors’ Choice Book by The New York Times. ![]() This got me thinking how when someone loses a spouse, as awful as that is, the surviving spouse eventually moves on but when a parent loses a child they almost never move on. By contrast, my cousin's widow eventually remarried and had a family. ![]() It was clear to everyone in that room that the pain was still raw for her and that it would continue to be raw for her for the rest of her life. At a family reunion nearly thirty years later, my aunt, updating everyone on what was happening in her life, began by saying, "I have two sons." Well, she'd once had two sons, but her older son had been dead for thirty years at that point. ![]() I was only a toddler at the time, but his death hung over my extended family for years. In terms of the inspiration, I had a first cousin who died of Hodgkin's disease when he was in his late twenties. ![]()
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