The Language of Love and Loss

By Bart Yates When his difficult mother is diagnosed with ALS, a sharp-witted yet sensitive artist reluctantly returns to his New Hampshire hometown – and all the ghosts he left behind.Fans of Andrew Sean Greer, Bryan Washington, and Jonathan Tropper will adore this outrageously funny, deeply touching, buoyant novel from the award-winning author of Leave Myself Behind.As it turns out, you can go home again. But sometimes, you really, really don’t want to . . .Home, for Noah York, is Oakland, New Hampshire, the sleepy little town where Noah’s mother, Virginia, had a psychotic breakdown and Noah got beaten to a pulp as a teenager. Then there were the good times—and Noah’s not sure which ones are more painful to recall.Now thirty-seven and eking out a living as an artist in Providence, Rhode Island, Noah looks much the same—and swears just as colorfully—as he did in high school. Virginia has become a wildly successful poet who made him the subject of her most famous poem, “The Lost Soul,”