After the End - July book club

I've downloaded this on Audible.
Have not read the PP just in case I see too much detail about the book.

I found this a difficult book to read and often wondered if I could continue. So pleased I did even with tears running down my cheeks. So well written, I cared about all of the characters.
The second part was very different but I liked the way it made me think and try to decide which I thought would have been the right decision. I couldn't.
My questions for Clare are did you find it difficult to write the 2 different paths in the second part and did you write them separately and then merge them together or did you write them as they appear in the book?
Thank you for a very emotional read.

I think I am going to be in the minority but I did not like this book at all. I could not relate to the main characters and just could not enagage in their emotions. I understand the strong emotional subject matter and feel it could have been a very strong storyline I just cannot feel it and I am not sure why. It is not one I would have chosen by choice and not my usual genre but I am open to emplore any story if it initially grabs my attention and this book did not. I persevered with it for a while but found it very boring. I found the backwards and forwards format difficult to follow. Not one for me I am afraid.

Sorry Clare not Jane! I am currently reading Jane Thynne's "Black Roses".

Definitely a book of two halves, I found the first half, up to the Court's decision, clearly written, compelling and engrossing, despite it being a book I might not normally have read. The author's person experience shines through in the detail and complexity of the situation.
The characters were authentic and well "fleshed out".
However I was less keen on the "sliding doors" treatment of the second half with its alternative endings. I find this genre fits a cinematic experience better where one is totally immersed. Personally I never read a book in one sitting (life gets in the way however much I am enjoying a book). Consequently I found the combination of changing time periods and characters fragmented. I would have preferred the author to select either outcome and follow it through which would have made for a more cohesive experience for me. This would not have prevented me from considering the pros and cons of each decision and reaching my own opinion on the more desirable of the horrendously difficult choices.
My question for Jane is: why did you decide to opt for alternative endings and can you think of any advantages following only one decision might have had?

Well I read this and I find myself trying desperately to reconcile my conflicting thoughts about it. It isn't a book I would have chosen to read had I picked it up in a shop or library. When I read about the author's loss at the end of the book I think I viewed it somewhat differently but I still couldn't get over the problems I found in it. I couldn't relate to either of the main characters and I felt that the whole story was plot driven which made both Max and Pip somehow less real. The second part with its separate outcomes I simply found really annoying. I also wish she hadn't used Robert Frost's poem which of course is not about there being two roads, but that we can only ever take one.
I also thought there were a couple of discrepancies. How could the paramedic be guilty of leaking the story to the press when Max had already written on line and created a crowdfunding account? Newspaper reporters do pick things up from social media. And secondly Max was working for an American firm and spending time in the USA, even if he worked out of the UK office, so surely he would have kept his medical insurance?
I'd like to ask Claire which she thinks most important in her writing, character or plot?

What an amazing book! I was gripped from the start and found it difficult to put down. Clare Mackintosh is incredibly brave to write about a topic so close to her heart. Thank you, Clare, for highlighting the dilemmas faced by your characters.. I thought it interesting how she portrayed the alternative endings, although I did have to concentrate to remember which ‘verdict’ I was reading about. Highly recommended!

This must have been a very difficult book to write for Clare. I found it a difficult book to read, not only for the subject matter but because it wasn’t easy to keep track of the first chapters, filling in the background. The book is written in two parts ‘Before’ and ‘After’.

After the court decision the story goes in different directions with Pip getting her decision to let Dylan die naturally in her story and Max getting his decision to take Dylan to America for treatment, which may or may not work or even give Dylan a life worth living, in his story. With alternating chapters, one from Pip’s point of view and one from Max’s with a couple about Laila thrown in, the years go backwards and forwards between 2015 and 2019, making the story difficult to follow.

The characters are well written and believable but after Max got together with Blair and Pip with Lars, for me the ending didn’t ring true.

My question for Clare is: Why didn’t you write the story in chronological order?

This was in a way, a difficult book to read, but in no way as difficult as it must have been to write.
How do you say you 'Enjoyed' the book when it's such a sad subject?
Clare has portrayed this situation very well, and it's rare that someone is balanced enough to give an account from both sides, understanding the other person's decisions and not holding onto the bitterness and bile that it caused at the time.
Clare, I don't really need to ask you something that I would feel was intrusive, so instead I shall say that this book was a perfect tribute to parents everywhere and all they would gladly endure so their children didn't have to.
What better memorial could you give to a child? You have shared them with the world..and the world feels better for knowing them.
Well done Clare.

The book concerns a very sick child, Dylan, and his parents Pip and Max, and follows their journey as they decide what to do in his best interests, and the repercussions of their decisions.
The first section is very focused on the family unit and is easy to follow. The second section is disjointed, both in time, place and is interspersed with ‘What if’ scenarios, maybe a reflection on how their lives are disintegrating.
I can quite see it was written to make sense of the past, and with the hope of helping others in a similar situation, but I have reservations. To some one with no experience of such trauma, it might look like an intrusion into another’s grief. To someone involved with such a situation, it might be too raw. To someone who has moved on it might unearth past emotional stress and memories which haven’t quite healed. I found the media intrusion realistic, but very disturbing.
There are some universal truths in the book. The road not taken – everyone probably has had to choose a path/ make a decision even over trivial things, then wonders if it was the right decision. Emotional meltdown and depression are a common result of unbearable stress, what ever the cause. Then there is the concept of ‘reality’. Someone with an injured mind could well not appreciate that their reality is different from what others perceive as reality – but which reality is the most valid?
A couple of decades ago I faced a husband recovering from a stroke, a son with cancer, and a daughter with anorexia, all at the same time – a traumatic and isolating experience of being the top of the ‘carer chain’. I coped by becoming emotionally detached and following the mantra ‘ Endure what can’t be changed, have courage to change what can be changed, and have the wisdom to see the difference’; and ‘Time will eventually resolve and even heal’ . I can see how Pip and Max were changed by their experiences.
A question – Pip has the courage to move on with her life. Do you think that, in some way, she was lucky to be able to do that, instead of facing endurance and compromise?

Thanks again for the book which I may not have read otherwise. It was a compelling read. I know the hospital well and had friends in a similar dilemma.
I was intrigued by the dual tread of the two possible scenarios which often intertwined and seemed more overlapping than parallel.
My question is did you ever worry about being so open, and how much of the story was similar to your own? I ask this respectfully.

After the End is a book which will stay with me for a long time !! I finished it with tears rolling down my face but with also a positive feeling inside
The book explores the realities of having to make a life changing decision As individuals we all have our own views but if these differ from others involved it makes that decision even more difficult. I am so glad to have read this emotion filled book, which has left an imprint on my heart. Everyone who reads this book will appreciate and understand life just a little more. It is evident this novel has been written from the heart and I feel that is why it is so special. Brilliant emotive writing and definitely one of my top reads recently .

My question to Clare is was this a difficult book to write? And did it bring back emotional memories or was it helpful to you personally?

I have just started reading your book, what a true to life book in my mind. Parents having to make a difficult decision regarding a small child. Do you ever suffer with writers block as so many people do that you hear about.

After the End by Claire Mackintosh.

This is a book that I read in one go, as I found that I became engrossed in the story and couldn’t put it down. In fact I am still going back and re-reading parts of it and wondering how I would have coped in a similar situation.

The Author herself states in her notes ‘it was an incredibly difficult to write and for many people it will be a difficult book to read’ but please, please do read all of it as you will not regret it.

The main characters are Pip and her husband Max, a loving couple with a critically ill small child. They have to make an impossible decision whether to continue with treatment or remove life support and let him die. The decision they make will affect their future.

Again from the Author ‘this is a story not about loss but about hope’

We cannot predict our future but we can choose to live again.

My question to Claire is:- It was incredibly brave of you to write this book and to use some of your own experiences in doing so. I have only had to make such decisions about much loved family pets. Was your use of the Robert Frost poem and the two paths with a similar ending, intentional from the beginning or developed as the story evolved?