Bart Yates

The Language of Love and Loss: A Witty and Moving Novel Perfect for Book Clubs Bart Yates

When his difficult mother is diagnosed with ALS, a sarcastic, complicated artist reluctantly returns to his New Hampshire hometown and all the ghosts he left behind in this witty, touching, deeply satisfying new novel about a man who has no choice but to turn back and find himself From the award-winning author of Leave Myself Behind.

As it turns out, you can go home again. But sometimes, you really, really dont want to . . .

Home, for Noah York, is Oakland, New Hampshire, the sleepy little town where Noahs mother, Virginia, had a psychotic breakdown and Noah got beaten to a pulp as a teenager. Then there were the good timesand Noahs not sure which ones are more painful to recall.

Now thirty-seven and eking out a living as an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, Noah looks much the sameand swears just as colorfullyas he did in high school. Virginia has become a wildly successful poet who made him the subject of her most famous poem, The Lost Soul, a label Noah will never live down. And J. D., the one who got awaybecause Noah stupidly drove him awayis in a loving marriage with a successful, attractive man whom Noah despises wholeheartedly.

Is it any surprise that Noah wishes he could ignore his mothers summons to come visit?

But Virginia has shattering news to deliver, and a request he cant refuse. Soon, Noah will track down the sister and extended family he never knew existed, try to keep his kleptomaniac cousin out of jail, feud with a belligerent neighbor, confront J. D.s jealous husbandand face J. D. himself, the ache from Noahs past that never fades. . . . All the while, contending with his brilliant, unpredictable mother.

Bittersweet, hilarious, and moving, and as unapologetically candid and unforgettable as Noah himself, The Language of Love and Loss is a story about growing older, getting lostand finding your way back to the only truths that really matter.
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