Coming Back to Me

by Caroline Leavitt

It can take a long time to build up a life, and only moments to destroy it. Gary and Molly met in the way couples after a long haul of being single, quickly becoming soulmates and rejoicing in that fact. Beautiful, red-haired Molly ignites a fire in Gary and he eases the pain she feels about her past. Starting a family is something they both want badly to do, and with great joy Molly finds herself pregnant.

When she leaves for the hospital that things start to go seriously wrong. Just a few weeks later Gary is alone with a newborn and a mountain of medical bills he has no means to pay for. Desperate for help, he calls on Molly's long estranged sister, Suzanne.

Many authors have tackled the challenges of love and marriage. Caroline Leavitt claims the turf in her own exciting way, twisting and turning a medical nightmare into an opportunity for redemption and hope, in Coming Back to Me .

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Romance, Chick Lit, Drama, Family, Book Club

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Caroline Leavitt is the New York Times bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World, Is This Tomorrow, With or Without You, Pictures of You (Algonquin Books), which. Pictures of You was on the Best Books of the Year lists from the San Francisco Chronicle, The Providence Journal, Bookmarks and Kirkus Reviews. It was also a Costco Pennie's Pick. Is This Tomorrow was long listed for the Main Readers Prize, a WNBA Reading group Choice, A San Francisco Chronicle Lit Pick/Editor's Choice, a Jewish Book Club Pic and the winner of an Audiofile Earphones Award.

Her 13th novel DAYS OF WONDER will be published by Algonquin/Hatchette in the spring of 2024.

The winner of a New York Foundation of the Arts Grant, a second prize winner in Goldenberg Fiction Prize, A Sundance Screenwriting Lab Finalist, a Nickelodeon Screenwriting Fellowship Finalist and a National Magazine Award Nominee, Leavitt is a senior writing instructor at UCLA and Stanford online and a freelance manuscript consultant. Her work has appeared in New York Magazine, Psychology Today, Salon,More, and more.
She has been featured on The Today Show and profiled in the New York Times.

You can reach her through www.carolineleavitt.com. On twitter @leavittnovelist. On Instagram @carolineleavitt and FB https://www.facebook.com/carolineleav... @carowriter99

Reviews

[M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, and I thought Gary's devotion to Molly was beautiful, but I'm left with questions. On the night that Molly woke up, had Gary and Suzanne not been interruped by the hospital calling to tell them about Molly, would they have gone further than a few kisses? When Molly had her suspicions about Gary and Suzanne and she asked Suzanne about them, Suzanne denied it but Molly still sensed something had gone on, but they never really spoke about it again. Did Molly just forget about it or was she still suspicious? Also, Gary and Suzanne never adressed their intimacy prior to Molly waking up, so that was left too unresolved for me. Suzanne was going to remain a big part of their lives, would there ever be tension between the three of them about what may or may not have happened between Gary and Suzanne? Other than that, really great story and well fleshed out characters.

[Merve Akıncı · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kimi zaman ağladığımda oldu. Gerçekten bir babanın düştüğü zor durumları, oğluna ve karısına bakabilmek için girdiği en saçma işleri ve çözülmez akıl karışıklığı, yalnızlık düğümleriyle hoş bir kitaptı. Bu kitap çok gerçekti.

[Kathie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read a book by this author because Jodi Piccolt recommended her. I loved this book so much I read everything else she has written and am waiting for her newest book to be released. Her characters are so real and the situations are believable. I finished each of the books in a couple of days and couldn't wait to get to the next. There is a common link between her and Jodi's books and that is the endings are left unfinished. I never have been unsatisfied with that though. It leaves the reader feeling like they are a part of the story and the ending can be whatever you make it. Just like real life!

[Kate Singh · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wound up skimming this book. I love the way Caroline Leavitt writes and I devoured her book With Or Without You. However, this book seemed to have the same themes and characters. A rock and roll musician, a woman in a coma, a mess of a husband trying to deal with new hardships, an affair...

The story gets hard to read because things keeping going downhill and getting worse and I think that, personally, I just can't read stories where the situation goes from bad to worse and then beyond and people keep doing stupid things because they are depressed or stressed. I think it is a well-written book, just not a story I wanted to digest.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, I read this book in pretty much one sitting and while it was also engrossing and entertaining, it was not my favorite of her books. It too had an open ending - albeit, not as open as the others' endings.
I have run out of her books now and frankly, I am just shocked at how quickly they all went out of print. They are VERY good... I just wish that they were easier to find!

[Frieda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't put this book down. It was very interesting to see how these sisters were so different but were there for each other.

[Travelcrazyone · Rating 3 out of 5]

The premise was good, the pace began well but it seemed to drag without much direction towards the last 1/3 of the book . I felt like more could have been done with the neighbor’s characters since it was such a build up in the beginning . We really didn’t see them all come around beyond “just a little bit”. We also didn’t get a sense of closure from Gary as to if he did take on his work opportunity to help pave the way to normalcy & routine again . The story seemed a bit untethered at the end . Obviously, it was great to see Molly earn her “mommy wings” but it seemed like we spent a lot of time back and forth in the hospital and not enough time post hospital .

[Lisa O · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not best by this author

The behavior of the characters in this book seemed unbelievable, despite the hard circumstances. Some odd “lack of technology” issues—in particular, no cell phone for man with critically ill wife, though a sideline character had one, and the timing of the novel was appropriate for cell phones. That Gary could think he could stay away from work indefinitely and keep his job was hard to believe. I’ve liked other books by this author-this is an earlier book and I think her skills have improved. The book just seemed to come to a stop with no real ending or wrap up.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the best written worst story I ever read. The cover was deceiving, a cozy diner...and it started out with so much potential why was this such a tragic story that went absolutely nowhere .

I put this down a few times, I didn't really care what happened because after the birth there was not one good thing that happened, the only reason I finished was because it's Christmas Eve and I was bored...Caroline Leavitt has some good reviews, but I don't know why she wrote this disastrous story line.

I am off to read the reviews as I cannot figure out why this was even publihed.

A very sad read.

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! So much so that I am neglecting many other things this morning to finish it. It has a plot so different that I greedily read it and worried my way through it. I loved most of the characters though there is one I am not sure I can care about. What a tender story of the true meaning of love! The writing was delicious; that’s the only way I can describe it, as the author made me taste and feel things with her skillful choice of just the right word. Now to give this to one of my three daughters, all of whom are going to devour this story!

[Kristi Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second book that I have read by Caroline Leavitt. I have read Girls In Trouble and I loved that book. This book was very good. It was one of those books that I could not put down. I have two sisters that I dearly love. I could relate to the problems in Molly and Suzanne's lives. This story is about love, forgiveness, and never giving up on others that love us. It's now time for me to put all of her other books on my to read list.

[Elizabeth Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful, wonderful book! This book is all about finding your way in the world, learning to trust others to stand on your own two feet. It's about love and loss and growing up and getting better. It's about family and people we wish were family. It's about sticking by someone, not firing someone in the midst of their troubles, not having regrets, new beginnings and learning! I loved this book! Recommended!

[Jonesy952 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Coming Back to Me by Caroline Leavitt: Not a bad book-kept my interest. A young woman whose sister is estranged from her meets the love of her life. They get married and want to start a family. She ends up with complications after the pregnancy and is hospitalized for months. Her husband sends for her sister, who is a misfit, to help. Trouble ensues.

[Denise S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Such a sad and depressing book. The neighbors and doctors and friends are all cold and aloof, sometimes bordering on miserable. There is no way a doctor would waive his medical fees and bills in the year this was written..2003..I don’t know how Gary kept up the pace that he did each day. I have read other books by this author that were much better.

[Christel Van de beek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een super mooi boek over liefde, gezin en familie verbanden! Een einde die je niet van te voren kon bedenken.
Het duurde wel even voordat ik in het verhaal zat maar eenmaal over de helft in 1 ruk uitgelezen!

[Paula Hess · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Tuba Inan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hayatın,sevginin ve aile olabilmenin değerini anlatan bir dram kitabı.Akıcı ve etkileyiciydi.

[Valerie]

Another goodie

[Lane · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sad sad book nothing like her other books

[Claudia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nederlandse titel: Broos geluk

[Ceren Ünlü · Rating 4 out of 5]

Caroline Leavitt / Baba
Baba kitabı büyük bir hüzünle okundu, bitti. Hüzünlü, duygusal bir kitaptı. Güzeldi... Yazarı seviyorum. Dilini, tarzını beğeniyorum. Çok içten. Sıcacık. Baba kitabı, dokunaklıydı. Karakterler hikayeye çekicilik katmıştı.
Moly: Yalnız ve iyi olan kişi. Anne ve kız kardeş. Doğum yapmak için kaldırıldığı hastanede yaşamla ölüm arasında gidip gelen bir kadın.
Gary: Dürüst ve doğru olan kişi. Baba. Karısına aşkla bağlı, oğluna bakmaya çalışan adam.
Gerta: Haftalık 1.000 $ maaş alan çatlak çocuk bakıcısı. (Kadın harbi çatlaktı ! Okuyunda görün valla kadını hatırladıkça gözlerimi deviriyorum.)
Suzanne: Tarifsiz kişilik. Moly'nin ablası.Suzanne evini ve kardeşini daha çocukken terk etsede geçmişteki olaylar onun tarfaından anlatıldıkça beni en çok hüzünlendiren kişiydi. Fakat yaptıklarıyla şoka uğratadan da o oldu. Of hala sinirleniyorum. Sonra da hüzünleniyorum.
İlk bakışta aşklar vardır ya hani, Moly ve Gray'in ki de öyle bir şey. Tanıştılar, sevdiler, evlendiler. Nasıl bir türdendir anlayamadığım komşuları oldu. (Ama cidden başka türdendiler yaw) Ve elbette bebekleri Otis doğdu...
Moly doğum yapmak için gittiği hastaneye gittiğinde işler bir anda kötüleşiyor. Doktorlar neyi olduğunu bilmediklerinden resmen kadının üzerinde deneme yanılma yöntemi ile iyileştirme çalışıyorlar. Fakat Moly'nin durumu ne kadar ağır olursa olsun hayata tutunuyor. Gary ise işsiz kalmış bir halde hem Moly'nin tedavi masraflarını karşılamaya çalışıyor hemde yeni doğmuş oğlu ve onun bakımı ile başbaşa kalıyor. Ve yardım için Moly'nin geçmişine sığınıyor... Suzanne'ye...
Kitap hem bir babanın oğluna olan sevgisini hemde eşine olan bağlılığını konu almış. Ve hoşuma giden bir kısımda Moly ve Suzanne'nin geçmişlerine değinmesiydi. Merakla okudum...
Yazarı ve kitabı çok başarılı buldum. Kitabın çevirisini ise çok beğendim. Benim okurken zorlandığım tek kısım vardı; bölüm araları çok uzundu ! Uykusuz bıraktı beni :)
Kısacası.. Kitap sıradışı, trajik ve güncel bir hikayeydi... Yazarın esinlendiği olayları yeniden yaşamak yürek parçalayıcı olsada ben severek okudum.
Kitabı herkese tavsiye ederim... !!

[Louise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Suzanne and Molly grow up together as close sisters until Suzanne becomes a little older and is fed up with life at home and always having to do the chores, the shopping and caring for Molly. She packs up her bags and heads for California never to return.
Molly attends school grows up and meets Gary and falls totally in love with him. They build a wonderful life together, selling the house in Elisabeth that she inherited when her relatives passed away and together bought a resale home in New Jersey. Molly and Gary are an immensely happy and loving couple who lived off and fed each other’s love. Molly becomes pregnant and a couple of days after delivering their beautiful son, Otis, Molly begins to seriously haemorrhage and undergoes many, many surgeries. The doctor’s aren’t quite sure what is exactly wrong with her, why she is comatose or why her blood won’t clot. Is Molly even going to live?
Totally grief stricken, Gary tries to pick up the pieces and become a new Dad all the while worrying about Molly and how he’s going to work, take care of a newborn and visit his wife in the hospital. He decides to hire a live-in Nurse to look after Otis so he can spend as much time as possible at the hospital with Molly even though she has no idea he is there. Shortly after, Gary gets the shock of his life when his boss phones him up one day and fires him. Now with no job, no money and mounting hospital bills that are astronomical he begins to slide into a bit of a depression. He can’t afford to keep the live-in nurse and has to let her go. Not having any relatives himself, Gary’s only option is to track down Molly’s long lost sister Suzanne and ask her to come and help. Is this a good idea?

The story is told from three different perspectives, that of: Gary, Molly and Suzanne and is interesting how each sees the situation and how the story plays out. A fairly good novel.

[Kat · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was about 2 sisters, the older one ran away to ca with her boyfriend the musician

the mother married, moved to fl and left the house to the younger daughter who became a school teacher

she met a guy in a diner, they got married and she had a boy, otis

then something went wrong before she got out of the hospital and she was in a coma

leaving her husband to deal with the baby, the house and hospital bills alone

he hired a nurse for the house $1,000 per week and divided his time between his son and his wife in the hospital

the drs couldnt figure out how to cure his wife

then his jerk boss fired him so he now had no income and the bills coming in from the hospital every day, on the phone fighting with the insurance who of course didnt want to pay anything

so he had to get rid of the nurse, he couldnt afford to pay her and called the sister of his wife that he never even met or talked to and sent her money to come and help. she was left by the boyfriend who she later found out married and had a kid with someone else and got divorced

seh came and helped and grew to love the baby and was falling for her sisters husband

then the x boyfriend shows up, she leaves him in the car with the baby when she went in the store, he left the baby alone and the car was hit and run and then the social worker came to the house to check on the baby

the mother finally came out of the coma but was still in the hospital

then the finally let her come home but she still wasnt cured or know if she ever would be but they became friends with the sister who got her own apt nearby so she could visit with the baby

it was a good book

[★¸. • * ° * ༺*Blanka*༺*°°*•.¸. ♥★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

It can take a long time to build up a life, and only moments to destroy it. Gary and Molly met in the way couples do: after a long haul of being single, quickly becoming soulmates and rejoicing in that fact. Beautiful, red-haired Molly ignites a fire in Gary and he eases the pain she feels about her past. Starting a family is something they both want badly to do, and with great joy, Molly finds herself pregnant.

It is when she leaves for the hospital that things start to go wrong. Only a few weeks later, alone with a newborn and a mountain of medical bills he has no means to pay for, Gary must call on Molly's long estranged sister Suzanne to help.

I enjoyed the development of the characters, however some of the medical explanations were a bit "out there". I'm not a doctor or anything but even I know cystic fibrosis isn't caused due to lack of oxygen. Other than that It was a very emotional journey but the medical explanations kept getting in the way of me really enjoying it fully..

[Pammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a harsh, sad, woeful tale, hidden behind a teasing beginning between two soul mates that rejoice in what they have found in each other.
And then, with the birth of their first child, "things start to go seriously wrong". COMING BACK TO ME was a page turner for me, because I kept thinking that surely these two young lovers were eventually going to get a break at some point in this story.
But even with the conclusion, the reader is still left hanging, wondering about the medical diagnosis, the huge medical bills, their financial future, the complicated family dynamics always waiting in the wings..... Honestly, I was a bit relieved to end the book.

[Janet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! The absolute devotion of Gary, along with the brain-numbing futility of going to visit his wife day after day with no visible improvement, caring for his baby alone, and then his growing dependence on Suzanne. I've read and loved many of Caroline Leavitt's books. This one is probably my favorite. Her characters are always so real, so genuine, so fascinating. It's so easy to get to know them and to love them because they are enormously human. This is the last book to read by this author since I've read all of her other books and loved them all. Highly recommend this author.

[Lori Spielman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this heartbreaking novel about love and loss and redemption. In addition to Leavitt's beautiful writing and intricate storyline, I found the characters flawed and genuine and hope-filled. I was stunned to discover that in the end, my opinion of Suzanne had changed completely, and at times I was rooting for her more than Molly. A beautiful novel about loyalty, forgiveness, and the resilience of the human heart.

[Valentina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third book I've read by this author. Her stories are compelling and I can't wait to get back to each one but this book left me rather unfulfilled. It's the first time I've finished a book I liked but then "forgot" I finished it. By that I mean that I almost started looking for it again after I had finished it. Strange. Guess it left me hanging even though story lines were complete enough.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story had a lot of potential to be really good but the author did a poor job of building the characters and the emotions involved. The whole weird neighborhood was never explained and I felt there were many ridiculous scenes - I don't know how the sister grew to love the baby so much when she barely paid it any attention for the first month or two she was there. It was just poorly fleshed out. Bleh....

[Diane · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of Caroline Leavitt's earlier books and not one of her best. Story line is a bit trite and the plot is too pat. A young couple, very much in love, have a baby. Wife gets infection during delivery and the story is how the husband copes with the baby at home and a sick wife in the hospital. Complications arise when the estranged sister comes to help out. There are better books to read.