Audio Book Review: If I Forget You by Thomas Christopher Green
If I Forget You by Thomas Christopher Greene
Publisher: Audible Studios
Release Date: June 14, 2016
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher’s Description:
Twenty-one years after they were driven apart by circumstances beyond their control, two former lovers have a chance encounter on a Manhattan street. What follows is a tense, suspenseful exploration of the many facets of enduring love. Told from altering points of view through time, If I Forget You tells the story of Henry Gold, a poet whose rise from poverty embodies the American dream, and Margot Fuller, the daughter of a prominent, wealthy family, and their unlikely, star-crossed love affair, complete with the secrets they carry when they find each other for the second time.
Written in lyrical prose, If I Forget You is at once a great love story, a novel of marriage, manners, and family, a meditation on the nature of art, a moving elegy to what it means to love and to lose, and how the choices we make can change our lives forever.
If I Forget You is the story of Henry and Margo. They were star-crossed lovers in college but broke up for reasons that would be a spoiler. Henry was from a working class family while Margo was born into a life of privilege. The book alternates between their college days in 1999 and the present. Henry is now a college professor and Margo is a wealthy wife and mother. One day in the present, Henry and Margo see each other from afar and eventually reconnect. We learn the reasons they have been apart all these years. Also, Margo has been harboring a secret that she is scared to tell Henry.
I enjoyed Henry and Margo’s story. Both characters were well developed and interesting. Their romance was sweet and I was sad when they broke up. Henry was particularly sympathetic- I felt sorry for him a lot of the time. There was a surprise twist at the end that I did not see coming but did not seem contrived.
I listened to the audio version of this book and thought the narrator did a nice job. If I Forget You is a great summer read.
(I received a complementary copy of this audio book for review.)
