I enjoy talking to authors on the release date of their books. It’s like becoming a little part of the history. So it was a JOY to talk to Ann Putnam about her new book: I WILL LEAVE YOU NEVER.
Ann’s writing is so eloquent. I shudder when I read about the fires in the Northwest and this story about a family living on the edge of a forest and facing the terror of an arsonist on the lose is one that is both gripping and suspenseful.
Yet with her deft handling of the material and her ability to find joy in little things in life—kids laughing, puppies being born—gives us the release from tension that is need to keep turning the pages to find out what will happen to this family.
I have invited Ann back to Joy on Paper to talk about her experience at the famed writing retreat: HEDGEBROOK
About the book:
In the middle of a perilous drought in the Northwest, an arsonist begins setting fires all around. It gives Zoe Penney nightmares about her home—seated right next to tinder-dry woods—rising up in explosions of fire, as well as haunting dreams of a little boy deep in the forest.
Winter brings the longed-for rains but also a cancer diagnosis for Zoe’s husband, Jay, which plunges the family into disbelief and fear. The children lean in close to their parents, can’t stop touching them. As Jay’s treatment begins, nature lets loose with strange and startling encounters, while a shadowy figure hovers about the corners of the house.
First, Zoe’s fear turns to anger: How can I love you if I am to lose you? How can I live in joy when the sky is falling? But she gradually learns that it’s possible to love anything, even terrible things—if you can love them for what they are teaching you.
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High praise for I Will Leave you Never
“Ann Putnam is the kind of extraordinary writer who captures heartbreak and longing with such startling precision and in such beautiful prose that you cannot help but be moved. Zoe and Jay, this family, will live in my memory for years to come.”
—Dolen Perkins Valdez, New York Times best-selling author of Wench, Balm and Take My Hand
“Ann Putnam’s I Will Leave You Never is a heartbreaking, gracefully rendered story of the quiet moments between and around the devastating ones and of the beautiful inner workings of the heart and minds battling their way along life’s toughest roads.”
—Laurie Frankel, New York Times best-selling author of This is How It Always Is and One Two Three
“Ann Putnam’s ironically titled I Will Leave You Never is a novel full of leave-takings that even Zoe—the appointed family worrier—could not anticipate over the course of a year that will strain but not break the bonds of her loving family.”
—Ladette Randolph, editor-in-chief of Ploughshares and author of Pushcart Prize winner Private Way
“Exquisitely written, this luminous novel takes you to the deep heart of a marriage. Threatened by illness and arson, a family with three children and too many puppies ultimately finds the strength to go forward with wit and insight.”
—Beverly Conner, author of Where Light is a Place, Falling From Grace
“Ominous and original, Ann Putnam’s novel is characteristically lyrical and precise. It is at its heart a love story, where characters facing loss uncover the generative quality of love.”
—Beth Kalikoff, author of Dying for a Blue Plate Special
