Leave me

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

It's every woman's fantasy: to pack a bag and leave everything behind.

Meet Maribeth Klein , a harried working mother who is so busy taking care of her husband and twins that she doesn't even realise that she has had a heart attack.

But her recuperation seems to be an imposition on those who rely on her. So Maribeth does the unthinkable - she packs a bag and leaves. Maribeth has always wondered who she is and where she comes from: and now's the time to find out. Now, far from the demands of family and career, she is finally able to own up to the secrets she has been keeping from herself and those she loves.

From the bestselling author of If I Stay and I Was Here comes a stunning new novel for Forman's adult readers, an unflinching portrait of a woman confronting the joys and sorrows of marriage, motherhood and friendship.

*~*~*Readers love Leave Me *~*~*

'[ Leave Me ] reminds you that we are all fragile human beings, imperfect and all a work in progress and above all, it reminds us that life is complex and frightening but not impossible ' The Bookbag

'Read it, as they say, and weep ' Daily Mail

' When I reached the end of this book, I was in tears because of how honest and raw it was. This book will really make you think very deeply about your deepest desires' Twenty-Three Pages

'An appealing fairy tale for the exhausted and underappreciated' Kirkus

'Deftly explores the domestic struggles of 21st-century bourgeois life. This is an insightful ode to--and cautionary tale for--the overburdened working mother' Book Page

' With humor and pathos, Forman depicts Maribeth's complicated situation and her thoroughly satisfying arc , leaving readers feeling as though they've really accompanied Maribeth on her journey' Publishers Weekly

Excerpt provided by Syndetics

Maribeth examined the monitor on her finger. A pulse ox. She recalled her father wearing one after his stroke. The monitors taped to her chest itched; she suspected it would take a good scrubbing tonight to get the glue off. "Excuse me," she called to one of the ER residents, a stylish young woman who wore expensive shoes and spoke with a Valley Girl lilt. "Do you know when I might get out of here?" "I think they, like, ordered another blood draw," the doctor said. "Another one. Why? I thought my EKG was normal." "It's procedure." More like covering their asses or padding the bill. Maribeth had once edited an exposé about profit-driven hospitals. With that she remembered the piece Finoula had sent. She might as well cross something off her list. She pulled it up on her phone. It was an interesting premise--about celebrities who were harnessing social media for philanthropic purposes; Maribeth vaguely recalled suggesting it in a pitch meeting--but it was terribly executed. Usually, Maribeth could read an article and immediately see the problems in structure or logic or voice and know how to fix them. But she read the piece a second time, then a third, and couldn't see the forest for the trees, couldn't see how to make it right. It was the hospital. Hardly a conducive workplace. She needed to get home. It was almost dinnertime. Jason would probably be back with the kids by now. He might even start to, if not worry, then wonder. She closed the article and saw several missed calls from the landline. She called and Jason answered almost right away. "Maribeth," he said. "Where are you?" The sound of Jason's steady, sonorous voice shook something loose in her. Maybe because his phone voice resembled his radio voice, it had the power to ricochet her back twenty-five years in time, to those nights when Maribeth and her friends would listen to his Demo-Gogue show from their dorm and muse over who he really was (his on-air name was Jinx) and what he was really like. "I'll bet he's ugly as sin," her roommate Courtney had said. "Hot voice, hideous face." Maribeth, who worked for the college newspaper, had no opinions as to his looks, but she was certain that he would be an unbearable snob, like all the art and music writers on staff were. "You should interview him and find out," Courtney had dared. "Where are you?" Jason repeated. Now she heard the irritation in his voice. And then she heard why. In the background was the clatter of adults and children. Many, many children. The potluck. Tonight. Shit! "I thought you wanted me to make the chicken, but we don't have any in the house and now people are here," Jason said. "Are you getting food?" "No. I'm sorry. I forgot." "You forgot ?" Now Jason sounded pissed. Which she supposed she understood, but it still made her chest clench again. Because, really: How many times had Jason spaced on something, leaving her to mop up the mess? "Yes, I forgot," she said, her voice snappish. "I had other things on my mind, what with being stuck in the ER all afternoon." "Wait? What? Why?" "I was having chest pains, so Dr. Cray sent me just to get checked out," she explained. "What the fuck?" Now Jason sounded angry, truly angry, but in a different way from before. Like he was sticking up for her against a bully. "It's probably nothing, just stress," she said, feeling foolish for having told him, and more foolish for having told him out of spite. "They've had me under observation for hours." "Why didn't you call me?" "I tried, but you didn't answer, and anyway, I thought I'd be out of here by now." "Where are you?" "Roosevelt." "Should I come up?" "Not with everyone in the house. Just tell them I had work late and then order some pizza. They're letting me out soon." She pounded her chest with her fist, hoping that might make the resurgent pain go away. "Shouldn't I be with you?" "By the time you got up here, I'd be discharged. It was just an overblown case of heartburn." In the background, she heard Oscar begin to cry. "What's going on?" "Looks like Mo took Creepy Lovey." Creepy Lovey was a defaced teddy bear that Oscar couldn't sleep without. "Better get it back," she told Jason. "And can I talk to him? Or Liv?" As Jason tried to corral the children, her phone made that mournful sound, down to its last 10 percent, and then, a few seconds later, made another sad sound, and died. "I'll be home soon," she called. But they could no longer hear her. * LATER A GRANDFATHERLY doctor wearing a polka-dot bow tie showed up. He introduced himself as Dr. Sterling and told Maribeth he was the on-call cardiologist. "There was an abnormality on one of your EKGs so we ordered that second blood test and this one showed elevated levels of troponin," he explained. "But the earlier EKG was normal." "That's not atypical," he replied. "My guess is that you've had what we sometimes call a stuttering infarct." "A what?" Maribeth asked. "Ischemia, probably ongoing for the past twenty-four hours or so, which is why you've had intermittent pain, and now your blood work suggests complete occlusion of one of the arteries." "Oh," Maribeth said, struggling to take it in. "I see." "So, we're going to send you to the cardiac cath lab to look for any underlying blockages in your coronary arteries, and if we determine a blockage, we'll place a stent right then and there." "When is all this happening?" "Lickety-split. As soon as we can get you upstairs." "Now?" She looked at the clock. It was past seven. "It's Friday night." "You have plans to go out dancing?" He was amused by his joke. "No. I just wondered if we could we do this, this stent thing next week?" "Oh, no. We need to get in there before any more damage is done." Damage. She didn't like the sound of that. "Okay. How long does it take? I mean, when can I expect to get out of here?" "My, my, are you always in such a hurry?" he asked. He chuckled again, but this time there was the slap to it, as if the underlying message was I see how you got yourself here. But at this very moment twelve four-year-olds were rampaging around her apartment. Someone was going to have to clean up after them, to find the Goldfish crackers that Mo always stashed away in the closet, or the soiled diapers that Tashi always left in the kitchen garbage (because Ellery still would only crap in Pampers). Someone was going to have to make chocolate chip pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast and to make sure the pantry was stocked with all the ingredients. And that was just tonight. In the coming days, someone had to get the kids to their ballet classes, their soccer clinics, their speech therapy sessions, their playdates, their birthday parties. To take them shopping for their Halloween costumes, to the pediatrician for their flu shots, to the dentist for their cleanings. Someone had to plan the meals, buy the food, pay the bills, balance the checkbook. Someone had to get it all done, while still getting all the work-work done. Maribeth sighed. "It's just I have a house full of four-year-olds and a very busy weekend." He stared at her for a long moment, frowning. Maribeth looked back, disliking him already, and that was before he said, "You do realize you've had a heart attack?" Excerpted from Leave Me by Gayle Forman All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

Forman is no stranger to complex and emotional stories, having written the best-selling YA novel If I Stay, which was turned into a movie of the same name in 2014, along with writing its sequel Where She Went and the "Just One Day" series. In her first adult book, Forman breathes life into the story of 44-year-old magazine editor Maribeth Klein, too overworked and overwhelmed to realize that her chest pains were, in fact, a heart attack. While contemplating her future, Maribeth comes to terms with her past, fleeing her husband, Jason, and children Liv and Oscar to uncover the secrets of her adoption in Pittsburgh. Forman shines in letting readers decide if Maribeth is a villain for abandoning her family or a victim of her circumstances, following her long recovery through mysterious appointments with Dr. Grant, swimming lessons with adoption researcher Janice, and excursions with neighbors Todd and Sunita. In learning that everyone, including members of her birth and adoptive families, has secrets, Maribeth realizes the power of family in friends. -VERDICT While it may leave fans of Forman's previous books wanting more, this novel is sure to be in demand and will especially interest adoptees and their families. [See Prepub Alert, 3/28/16.]- Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

YA author Forman's successful foray into adult fiction features a New York City magazine editor, Maribeth Klein, an über-organized mom who is juggling her stressful job, a self-involved husband, and a set of preschool twins that are a handful. She's so busy helping everyone else she ignores her heart attack symptoms, ending up with emergency bypass surgery. Following this massive disruption in her life, Maribeth decides the only way to recover from the emotional and physical trauma of what she's been through is to suddenly leave her family, fleeing to Pittsburgh, not only to escape but also, spurred by her health problems, to find out more about her own background as an adoptee. The author nimbly explores what drove Maribeth from her family as well as what compels her to look for her birth mother at the age of 44. She goes off the grid-using cash from her savings, a burner phone, old-fashioned yellow pages, and the local library-to get her bearings and put a semblance of a life together. With humor and pathos, Forman depicts Maribeth's complicated situation and her thoroughly satisfying arc, leaving readers feeling as though they've really accompanied Maribeth on her journey. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Maribeth Klein is too busy with her four-year-old twins and her increasingly demanding job to realize she's had a heart attack at 44. Shrugging off the pain, she continues with her day, heading to the preschool to be the storytime reader. She tries to chip away at her increasing to-do list by persuading her husband take over dinner duties parenting group is meeting at their Tribeca apartment that night. She manages to keep her ob-gyn appointment so she can mention that she's feeling a bit off. Next thing she knows, she's having open-heart surgery. Complications lead to an extended recovery period, yet somehow Maribeth is quickly back at everyone's beck and call. And her illness brings up long-buried questions as an adoptee, she's clueless about her family medical history. When the demands get the best of her, Maribeth packs a bag, cashes out her bank account, and catches a train to Pittsburgh, where she hopes to find some answers about her past, as well as some time to herself. Popular teen author Forman's adult debut examines just what it means to be a working mother beholden to everyone, seemingly obligated to forget who you really are. Maribeth's search for her birth mother and the way she settles into her new albeit temporary life away from home will strike a chord with readers, especially those who enjoy Jennifer Weiner and Meg Wolitzer.--Vnuk, Rebecca Copyright 2016 Booklist