Brooklyn BookBeat: Park Slope author portrays family fighting heartbreak
Brooklyn-based writer Joshua Henkin has recently released “The World Without You” (Vintage; paperback; April 9) — his latest novel that portrays the Frankels, a family coping with the loss of Leo, the youngest of four siblings. Set during the summer of 2005, the Frankels are heading to their home in the Berkshires to commemorate Leo, who was killed in Iraq the previous year.
While each family member is grieving, all are simultaneously distressed about distinct issues. Leo’s parents, consumed by grief, encounter new challenges in their marriage. Clarissa, the oldest daughter, is struggling with infertility. Lily, a lawyer, is harboring anger. Noelle, an orthodox Jew, visits from Israel with her husband and children and feels out of place within her own family. Leo’s widow, Thisbe, and their three-year-old son, also join the family from California, only to complicate the mix of emotions and tensions that are brewing.
Narrated in the present tense, which adds to the drama with a sense of immediacy, “The World Without You” paints an intricate and engaging portrait of a family learning to deal with a heartbreaking loss.