Product Description

THERE'S A BIG LIFE AHEAD OF HER.

CAN SHE FIND THE COURAGE TO LIVE IT?

Emma is twenty-six -- pretty, intelligent, and happily living with her childhood sweetheart John in a cute little Dublin apartment. Her biggest problem is that her mother won't stop nagging her to get married already. Emma and John feel like the perfect couple, their future alive with possibilities. But out of the blue, a tragedy throws her life into disarray -- and Emma is suddenly, incomprehensibly, alone.

As she emerges from grief, Emma has to find a whole new way of living, and her loyal friends rally round in an attempt to help. Clodagh, Emma's lifelong friend, with whom she's shared everything from mud pies to dating disasters. Anne and Richard, more-or-less happily married and debating a move to the country. Emma's brother Noel, the young Catholic priest, finding his own faith tested even as he tries to comfort Emma. Seán, the gorgeous bad boy of a thousand one-night stands, uncomfortably aware of his and Emma's growing connection. Witty, acerbic, and sometimes downright shocking, Emma documents the stories of her friends and her own recovery from grief with a candor that engages the reader from the very first page.

With an amazing insight into the power of friendship and a wry, irreverent humor that considers no subject off-limits, talented new Irish writer Anna McPartlin tells a heartwarming story of the courage it takes to move past loss and learn to live.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #306285 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 374 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781416553090
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
Twenty-six-year-old Dubliner Emma has it all: a teaching job, good friends and childhood sweetheart John by her side. When John dies in an accident, she must face life alone. Haunted by what could have been and blaming herself, Emma retreats into a grief from which only her friends—successful ad-woman Clodagh, gadabout editor Seán, newlyweds Anne and Richard and her priest brother, Noel—can rouse her. A cat arrives unbidden on her windowsill, harbinger of the unbelievable string of events (pregnancy scares, a tryst with a Parisian rapper and saving a woman from a rape in a dark alley) that restores Emma's will to live. The mix of light farce and heavy drama knocks the book off balance, though, leaving readers unsure whether they should pity or envy Emma as she traipses her way to a neat, happy ending. (Apr.)
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Review
"Refreshingly honest, laugh-out-loud funny and heartfelt, a marvelous debut from a talented new author."

-- Cathy Kelly, author of Always and Forever and Past Secrets

Review
"Refreshingly honest, laugh-out-loud funny and heartfelt, a marvelous debut from a talented new author."

-- Cathy Kelly, author of Always and Forever and Past Secrets

Customer Reviews

A Truly Great Read!
Pack Up the Moon has quickly become one of my favorite books ever. It's about loss, pain, friendship, love, and finding your way. As a reader, you feel like you personally know the characters and fall in love with the story as it makes you cry and laugh. It is emotional and real. I didn't want it to end, but when it did, I felt satisfied and content. I'll be raving about this book for a while and would recommend it in a heartbeat!

A page-turner
It's not a book that will haunt me now that I'm finished with it in that deeply impacting way that others have done. But while I was reading it, I couldn't put it down.

I love the attention McPartlin pays to each character, loving them each equally, creating real people with complex lives out of every one of them. Her voice as an author is delightful, very pleasant and quick-paced. Despite the heartbreaking beginning to this book, the tone is quite uplifting.

It is clear that McPartlin put much thought into the emotions that accompany love, loss, and friendship. As I read in the back of the book, she draws, of course, on some of her own experiences, particularly with death of loved ones. Believe me, there is much to be learned from this book about the power of friendship and the search for one's own soul.

In short, the plot allows for a heartwarming journey through one woman's life and those closest to her. The author's skillfulness as a writer induces tears and laughter both. You can't ask for a better mix.

I may not be kept up at night tossing and turning thinking about Pack Up the Moon. Don't get me wrong, it's a deep book. But it is tender and loving enough that you feel healed and at peace after reading it. So I know that should I think back to this book in the future, it will be with warmth. Recommend it.

Heartfelt masterpiece!
WOW! I love this book! I finished this morning when I woke up and I am so happy that I picked this off of that bookshelf! Anna McPartlin, a writer I had never heard of, has officially changed my idea of reading. I love her writing style and her depth of character. I can't believe that she was able to capture so many universal emotions and stories in a 300 and some odd page book. Thank you for sharing this story with me! I will never forget it! Absolutely reccommended!