Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship

"A near-perfect memoir: beautiful, humble, intimate and filled with piercing insights. Meant to be savored and shared."--Time

"Stunning . . . gorgeous . . . intense and moving . . . A book of such crystalline truth that it makes the heart ache."--The Boston Globe

"Female friendships is the beating heart of this book. . . . [Gail Caldwell describes] both the very best that women can be together and the precious things they can, if they wish, give back to one another: power, humor, love and self-respect."--Julie Myerson, The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice

"[A] beautiful book . . . The losing isn't the exceptional part of this story; everyone loses something, sooner or later. The wonder lies in finding it in the first place."--Salon

"A tribute to the enduring power of friendship . . . You can shelve Let's Take the Long Way Home . . . next to The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion's searing memoir about losing her husband to heart failure. But that's assuming it makes it to your shelf: This is a book you'll want to share with your own 'necessary pillars of life, ' as Caldwell refers to her nearest and dearest. . . . A lovely gift to readers."--Washington Post

"[Their] relationship nurtured and inspired Caldwell and Knapp, and in reading about it, we feel enriched as well."--Chicago Tribune, Editor's Choice

"Universal . . . [Caldwell] taps the joys of communion with a soulmate."--Los Angeles Times

"A heartbreaker of a memoir . . . With humor and sadness . . . Caldwell gracefully weaves a thread of stories that describe and ponder friendship and loss."--USA Today

"High-spirited and heartrending."--People

"Caldwell's graceful account ensures that Knapp will be remembered not just for her tragic death but for her vigorous, rich life."--Parade

NAMED ONE OF THE TOP 10 NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY TIME MAGAZINE

SELECTED AS ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post - Los Angeles Times - USA Today - San Francisco Chronicle - O: The Oprah Magazine - The Christian Science Monitor - Publishers Weekly

Gail Caldwell is the former chief book critic for The Boston Globe, where she was a staff writer and critic for more than twenty years. In 2001, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. She is also the author of A Strong West Wind, a memoir of her native Texas. Caldwell lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.