THIS DISASTER LOVES YOU

A British man searches for his missing wife while reflecting on their lives together in this bittersweet tale.

Brian’s wife, Lily, disappeared from their pub six years ago and hasn’t been heard from since, though he keeps hoping that she’ll return one day. In the meantime, he spends his time chatting with Jeff, his one regular, and hoping his tiny staff will stay on board despite the increasingly negative reviews the pub is receiving online. One night while doing his obsessive daily check of the reviews, he ends up stumbling on the profile of someone who’s been commenting on places around the U.K. since about six months after Lily disappeared; her user name is the title of Lily’s favorite song and the year of her birth. Could it be Lily herself? Despite the state of the pub, Brian decides to head off in search of some sort of closure, following the reviews left by PinkMoonLily1970. Along the way, he connects with a woman named Tess who’s on her own journey of discovery; she’s thinking about ending her 20-plus-year marriage and decides to tag along with Brian while he shares his and Lily’s story with her. Roper is a good writer, able to evoke feelings with small turns of phrase, skilled at details that make a world and a relationship feel solid and lived in. Despite the potential tragedy inherent in the plot, the book is also very funny, from Jeff’s stories to Brian’s foibles and Lily’s sly wit in the stories Brian tells about her. The biggest downside is that Lily, the heart of the narrative, exists only in Brian’s memories rather than as a fully fleshed-out person in her own right. Though it’s clear why the book is framed this way, the absence of Lily is felt, and Tess, the other main female character, functions more in service to Brian’s story than as a character herself. This is such a good book that its stumbles feel bigger than they might otherwise.

A story of love and finding yourself that just slightly misses the mark.