The award-winning and New York Times bestselling author ofΒ Beautiful ChildrenΒ has created an unflinching yet deeply humane portrait of a young familyβs journey through a medical crisis, laying bare a coupleβs love and fears as they fight for everything thatβs important to them.
New York, 1993. Alice Culvert is a caring wife, a doting new mother, a loyal friend, and a soulful artistβa fashion designer who wears a baby carrier and haute couture with equal aplomb. In their loft in Manhattanβs gritty Meatpacking District, Alice and her husband, Oliver, are raising their infant daughter, Doe, delighting in the wonders of early parenthood.
Their life together feels so vital and full of promise, which makes Aliceβs sudden cancer diagnosis especially staggering. In the span of a single day, the coupleβs focus narrows to the basic question of her survival. Though they do their best to remain brave, each faces enormous pressure: Oliver tries to navigate a labyrinthine healthcare system and handle their mounting medical bills; Alice tries to be hopeful as her body turns against her. Bracing themselves for the unthinkable, they must confront the new realities of their marriage, their strengths as partners and flaws as people, how to nourish love against all odds, and what it means to truly care for another person.Β
Inspired by the authorβs life, Alice & Oliver is a deeply affecting novel written with stunning reserves of compassion, humor, and wisdom. Alice Culvert is an extraordinary characterβa woman of incredible heart and spiritβwho will remain in memory long after the final page.
Praise for Alice & Oliver
βThis hauntingly powerful novel follows a familyβs fight for survival in the face of illness. A stirring elegy to a marriage.ββO: The Oprah Magazine
βA rewarding reading experience . . . a testament to the resilience of humans and our willingness to forgive.ββSan Francisco Chronicle
βThe novelβs power is in its two charactersβ messy negotiation of their fears, errors and shifting affections. . . . Bock offers a forceful reminder that there are plenty of roiling emotions underneath that till-death-do-us-part.ββLos Angeles Times
β[A] heart-wrenching story of a young couple whose lives change when Alice gets diagnosed with cancer . . . a refreshingly unsentimental look at the vicious disease.ββEntertainment Weekly
βAlice & Oliver [has a] tough-minded commitment to truth-telling.ββThe Washington Post
βEven more than the meticulous details of drugs, treatments and side effects, Bockβs tender portrayal of [his characters] in all their desolation gives [Alice & Oliver] its ring of truth. . . . I loved this novel.ββMarion Winik, Newsday
βAlice & Oliver shows that, even in a situation thatβs about as terrible as it can be, there can still exist happiness, surprise, and life, that strange strong spirit thatβs with us until the end.ββThe Boston Globe
βThe most honest, unsentimentally powerful novel about cancer that Iβve ever read.ββMichael Christie, The Globe & Mail
βWrenchingly powerful . . . Bock chronicles the daily struggles of a young wife and mother facing her own imminent mortality. This is a soul portrait of a family in crisis, written with a fearless clarity and a deep understanding of the bonds that can hold two people together even in the darkest hour.ββRichard Price