The World Without You

The World Without You (2012) by Joshua Henkin. The "you" of the title is Leo, only son of the Frankel family, a journalist who was killed while covering the war in Iraq. Each of the remaining five members of the family grieves in his or her own way, and The World Without You tells the story of their individual and collective reactions to Leo's absence from their lives. Each family member is unique, of course, and it is in describing them in their singularity that this book excels. Reading it is always interesting, and only toward the end does it begin to drag a bit. It's a good, entertaining novel, though I didn't feel it taught me much about the human condition. Grade: B+