When Abigail Thomas’s husband, Rich, was hit by a car, his brain shattered. Subject to rages, terrors, and hallucinations, he must live the rest of his life in an institution. He has no memory of what he did the hour, the day, the year before. This tragedy is the ground on which Abigail had to build a new life. How she built that life is a story of great courage and great change, of moving to a small country town, of a new family composed of three dogs, knitting, and friendship, of facing down guilt and discovering gratitude. It is also about her relationship with Rich, a man who lives in the eternal present, and the eerie poetry of his often uncanny perceptions. This wise, plainspoken, beautiful book enacts the truth Abigail discovered in the five years since the accident: You might not find meaning in disaster, but you might, with effort, make something useful of it.

A Three Dog Life: A Memoir

Biographies & Memoirs

Thomas, Abigail

Arts & Literature

Harcourt,Inc.

A Three Dog Life

MarBksHMH

A stunning new way to celebrate the small moments that make up a life. In flashes of vivid prose — sometimes in pieces only one page long — Abigail Thomas breaks up the notion of what is "memoir" to tell us some true stories from her life: about love and upheaval, mistakes and loyalties, adventures and domesticities; marriage and motherhood at a very young age; a second husband who becomes both an ex and a dear friend in need; a smart-mouthed sister who helps her get through hard times; the many shades of feminine power and female rage; the changing face of desire. Safekeeping is a book in which white space speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of a life are, in the age of too much confession, a welcome breath of fresh air.

Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life

Community & Culture

KNOPF

A beautifully crafted and inviting account of one woman’s life, Safekeeping offers a sublimely different kind of autobiography. Setting aside a straightforward narrative in favor of brief passages of vivid prose, Abigail Thomas revisits the pivotal moments and the tiny incidents that have shaped her life: pregnancy at 18; single motherhood (of three!) by the age of 26; the joys and frustrations of three marriages; and the death of her second husband, who was her best friend. The stories made of these incidents are startling in their clarity and reassuring in their wisdom. This is a book in which silence speaks as eloquently as what is revealed. Openhearted and effortlessly funny, these brilliantly selected glimpses of the arc of a life are, in an age of excessive confession and recrimination, a welcome tonic.

Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life

Anchor

Welcome to the delightful array of smart and sassy women who valiantly -- and hilariously -- struggle with the eternal battle of the sexes in this gutsy collection of stories.
Child brides, misguided newlyweds, and lusty middle-aged grandmothers are just a few of the characters Abigail Thomas brings to life in these wise and witty stories about women of all ages trying to deal with love for men, with their families, and with their own lot in life. Thomas presents interesting heroines: there's the girl in "Sisters" who hates her younger sibling for (among other things) her precise memory. In "Seeing Things," Maude, who "wants to be tan the whole year round," and whose "great ambition is to be whistled at on the street," is told by her younger sister, "You look ridiculous smoking with the chicken pox." And then there are the four stories about Buddy and Virginia, who have to drop out of school and get married after she gets pregnant. From sibling rivalry to marital strife, Thomas uncovers the pain, the poignancy, and the belief in love that lie in the hearts of her heroines.

Getting Over Tom

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Scribner

An Actual Life

In this delightful novel, Abigail Thomas takes readers back to the summer of 1960 and into the heart of a young woman embarking on a marriage not exactly made in heaven.

Literary

Touchstone

The wife of a man who was institutionalized after an accident left him brain damaged describes her efforts to rebuild her life in a small country town with three dogs, a process during which she struggled with a very different relationship with her husband and found comfort in friendships.

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Pets & Animal Care

Thorndike Pr

Curled up at the window, Grandma and little Joe watch as Wilson Street wakes up--the paperboy arrives, the milkman stops at the corner grocery store, and a neighbor sets up her easel and paints.

Wake Up, Wilson Street

Children's Books

Henry Holt Co.

Lily has always lived with Eliza in Boston, playing with her rubber hedgehog, and when the movers come, the playful puppy fears everything will change. Children's BOMC.

Lily

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thomas, Abigail. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Thomas, Abigail

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Thomas, Abigail. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

A Three Dog Life: A Memoir

A Three Dog Life

Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life

Safekeeping: Some True Stories from a Life

Getting Over Tom

An Actual Life

A Three Dog Life

A Three Dog Life

Wake Up, Wilson Street

Lily