You Left Early Audiobook By Louisa Young cover art

You Left Early

A True Story of Love and Alcohol

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You Left Early

By: Louisa Young
Narrated by: Louisa Young
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About this listen

This brutal, beautiful memoir from award-winning novelist Louisa Young is a heartbreaking portrayal of love, grief and the merciless grip of addiction.

Louisa first met Robert Lockhart when they were both 17. Their stop-start romance lasted decades, in which time he became a celebrated composer and she an acclaimed novelist. Always snapping at their heels was Robert’s alcoholism, a helpless, ferocious dependency that affected his personality before crippling and finally, despite five years of hard-won sobriety, killing him.

There are a million love stories and a million stories of addiction. This one is truly transcendent. It is at once a compelling portrait of a unique and charismatic man, a bittersweet reflection on an all-consuming love affair and a completely honest and incredibly affecting guide to how the partner of an alcoholic can possibly survive when the disease rips both their lives apart.

This is a hugely important book. Raw and unflinching but also uplifting and elegiac, it should be essential listening for anybody who’s ever lost someone they loved.

©2018 Louisa Young (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Limited
Authors Entertainment & Celebrities Grief & Loss Relationships Women Celebrity Feel-Good
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Critic reviews

"Spectacular. I can’t stop thinking about it. Louisa Young is a beautiful, beautiful writer and there is great courage and love in the way she addresses her subject. It’s the portrait of a man and his times and his illness told with love but also with an unflinching honesty that feels like a great gift to the reader." (Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love)

"Oh my God, it’s so beautiful, and heartbreaking, and true." (Sam Baker, The Pool)

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Deeply moving

I was gripped from the beginning and while I don’t understand this kind of deep love of a flawed partner, I am so grateful that I haven’t had to experience this. This book is deeply moving and I couldn’t stop listening. I feel the author was so brave to make a life outside of this person but still loving him so deeply, she kept being drawn back to him. So many feelings but most of all, a respect for the author. Thank you for this sharing.

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tragically insightful

I can't describe it as entertaining. It is a young woman's charitable recounting of a prolonged life experience excruciating to live through and horrific to imagine in the reader's mind.

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2 people found this helpful