Literary fiction so beautifully written.A book of siblings torn apart after the horrible accident that killed their parents.A story of heartache loneliness unrequited love.An emotional read that Inwill not forget.#netgalley#penguinpress

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC. I was unable to finish this book. I didn’t love the writing style and I just couldn’t connect with the story, which is unfortunate because the description sounded wonderful.

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really was looking forward to this and liked the premise of it- a look at the character’s life and what he found valuable and regretted. I wondered if it might be like other books I’ve read.

I ended up being disappointed. The story seemed to focus on the passing of time and outlining what happened to the characters. There was not a lot to make me emotionally connect to the characters and I felt that was a big piece missing.

There is no other word to describe this story besides beautiful. This is one of the few books in my life that I will definitely read again. This is a book of love, loss, and loneliness, and I will not say more than this. You need to read it for yourself.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 5 incandescent stars
German author Benedict Wells has written a complex, thought-provoking book about all the important things in life; family, friendship, finding your place in the world, determining what sort of person you will become. We meet the narrator, Jules Moreau, in the hospital after he was involved in a motorcycle accident. He starts reflecting on all the events that brought him to this place.

Jules is the youngest of three siblings. Liz is the eldest in the family, Marty is the middle child, and Jules is the daredevil youngest child. He talks about their family life before the big event in their childhood, and then describes their lives being separated at a rather grim boarding school after the death of their parents. This is
a magnificently compelling, if a little bit grim, tale about how the siblings each deal with the death of their parents, in their adolescence and adulthood.

The writing was brilliant. I’ve never stopped to make as many notes on my Kindle as I did with this book. I have so many great quotes that I’d love to share, but I feel constrained by the review length to just share three of my favorites to give you a flavor of the things that made me stop and ponder while reading this book.

Advice to Jules from his Dad:
“The most important thing is that you find your true friend, Jules.” He realized that I didn’t understand, and gave me a penetrating look. “Your true friend is someone who’s always there, who walks beside you all your life. You have to find them; it’s more important than anything, even love. Because love doesn’t always last.”

Thoughts about the fairness of life events:
“Life is not a zero-sum game. It owes us nothing, and things just happen the way they do. Sometimes they’re fair and everything makes sense; sometimes they’re so unfair we question everything. I pulled the mask off the face of Fate, and all I found beneath it was chance.”

Jules’ thoughts about death:
“And then I thought about death, and how in the past I’d often imagined it was an infinite expanse, like a snowy landscape over which you flew. And where you touched that whiteness the emptiness was filled with the memories, feelings and pictures you carried within yourself, and it acquired a face. Sometimes what was created was so beautiful and strange that the soul dived in to linger there awhile before finally continuing on its passage through the void.”

This writing is at times stop-you-in-your-reading-tracks incandescent. We follow all three siblings as they find their way in the world and work through the loss of their parents. Some seem to roll with the punches, some retreat into addiction. Ultimately this is a story about creating a family in whatever form you find it, and finding in them and with them the strength to keep moving forward.

Originally I was going to give this 4 stars because the story to me was dark. But as the days have gone by, the story keeps popping up in my head. The characters still live there. Scenes and quotes float into my consciousness at seemingly random times. This book is about death, life, and family. It’s about the choices we are faced at cataclysmic events. The author and translator did a fabulous job with presenting one family’s path through the minefield that we all have to face as the price of being alive and being human.

‘Thank-You’ to NetGalley; the publisher, Penguin Books; and the author, Benedict Wells; for providing a free e-ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
(Any quotes shown above were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.)

*thank you to Netgalley and PENGUIN GROUP The Penguin Press for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

4 stars.

Such a beautifully written story! It was at first sight the cover that attracted me to this book. It is simply gorgeous. But it turned out that the story was just as good. I haven't read a book from this author before but I found I rather enjoyed the style. The storytelling grabbed me pretty much right away. This is a great story of hope and love and not one that you want to miss out on.

4+ stars

This was a book about siblings Liz, Marty, and Jules.. who at young ages, lost both their parents in a traffic accident, and then were sent to boarding school for many years. They were separated from each other while there and for the youngest, Jules .. it was especially difficult.
This is their story, (mostly focusing on Jules life) and how the sadness of such an early loss affected their entire lives. There are also other great characters in this book to bring about a very meaningful and lovely book!

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin Books for the opportunity to read this!

THE END OF LONELINESS blew me away! This is a gorgeously written novel populated by engaging characters, particularly our narrator, Jules. Essentially the story of a family tragedy and its aftermath, the novel is never maudlin or trite, but rather resonant with intense emotion. At times I would have liked to experience firsthand the perspective of Jules' siblings, but I understand why the author limited our viewpoint. It's so rare to find a beautifully written page turner -- I'm really grateful to have found this one.

My gosh.... the purity of this novel is beautiful. The storytelling MAGNIFICENT!

It’s a book you want to own - let some time pass - then read it again. A few novels are high on my ‘gift’ lists....
“Molokai” by Alan Brennert, “To The End of Your Life Book Club”, by Will Schwalbe, and “The History of Love”, by Nicole Krause are a few books. - just to name a few- I’ve given away to people many times. I like to bring a book - rather than a bottle of wine to dinner invitations.
I ‘already’ have a friend - Jamie - from Calgary who visits our AirBnB for a few days once a month when here on business), buying this novel for his wife.....( a valentines gift).

This is the type of book - that my long time close friend - Lisi- would call me up and say: READ IT!
I trust a “Lisi says read now” recommendation....NO MORE SAID... NO REVIEW....NO DETAILS...no consideration of cost...
JUST READ IT, Lisi says...and I do! I trusted my friend Peter, the same way.

I should really end my review here — simply invite EVERY FRIEND I KNOW - male and female - everyone who loves a great literary marvel....to READ THIS BOOK!
Friends can stop here - no need to read another word from me. Other than READ IT!

But for those who want more....
I’ll share a little - but it’s a book to experience yourself. This slim book captures the complexities of love, desire, and tragedy, brilliantly.

Here is a quote to THINK ABOUT while reading this novel — try it on. Does this ring true for you - or not:
A father tells his six year old son:
“It was important to have one true friend — a soulmate. Someone you’d never lose, who would always be there for you. He said that was much more important than love”.

Characters you’ll spend your most time with in this novel are: Jules, the narrator ....
Marty and Liz ( siblings of Jules), Toni, and Alva.
These are characters you come to know well. Alva’s character was the most challenging character for me to ‘deeply’ understand for awhile .... but after unraveling of her layers of who she was - I was richly rewarded with knowing her as I would a close friend.

Jules - and I share much in common. He was the youngest in his family - we both had a loss that we’d never wish for any child. We both sat in the backseat of the family car. We both felt that nobody really expected anything of us as kids.
Our adults and older siblings shared important conversations in the front seat of the car... but nobody thought we munchkins were listening intensely. We were - listening.

Alva asked Jules: “what it had been like for him and his siblings driving to a new home for the first time after his parents death?” I felt I knew what it was like for Jules. Jules was six when his parents died. I was 4 when my father died.

Forgive me - being soooo honest here: I just erased three paragraphs of a story about my life - relating closely with Jules ..... but I change my mind because I realize each reader… *YOU-I-HOPE*- are going to have many of your own stories - triggers - memories - and thoughts arise as you read this novel. It’s a treat to read this novel....
A WONDERFUL book club pick. Much to chat about each character.

I’m chatting with my daughter about this book - in Canada - ‘now’ - at the SAME TIME I’m trying to write a half way decent review - I’m nuts.....really nuts.
But I have so much passion for this book. ( and talking with my daughter while sharing about this amazing book is kinda fun and special)....
I’d be better at verbally chatting with others about this novel than writing.....but I’m giving this process my best effort. I look forward to verbal conversations with our friends.

So instead of too many more words from me .... I’ll share a little dialogue from this novel ...
BUT NO SPOILERS.....
...... just some thought provoking dialogue that either I resonated with, or I want to talk about it more, or I was just ‘moved’ by the beauty of such intelligent emotional writing.

Jules says:
“This constantly being alone is killing me”.
Alva says:
“Yes, but the antidote to loneliness isn’t just being around random people indiscriminately, the antidote to loneliness is emotional security”.
“Me, beckoning to the waiter: we’ll drink to that.......
and all this time I couldn’t stop staring at Alva’s beautiful ‘film noir’ face, looking into those big, luminous, pale green eyes; and another drink and we sank into blessed drunkenness, and to my astonishment I said, what I’d really like to do is leave my job, move away from Berlin and just write. And suddenly it was as if I found my inner voice again, and finally I admitted I missed Alva”.

I LOVED THIS EXCERPT .....( note: who hasn’t experienced the uncomfortableness of a formal controlled conversation with a person you ‘really’ know well- and they you?: awkward!)....
“For a moment I felt as if our real selves were far away, and we sent two negotiators to a bar who weren’t authorized to talk about the really important things”.

Another sweet gem:
“Alva’s hands, gesticulating as she spoke, or her teeth when she laughed, which she did a lot that evening, she had accepted her slightly crooked front tooth and didn’t hold up her hand in front of her mouth anymore”.

“Time isn’t linear; nor is memory. You always remember more clearly things you’re emotionally close to you at any given moment”.

Jules says:
“I hardly knew my father. I often wonder what our relationship would be like if he were alive. Would we have much to do with each other? Or perhaps even be friends? I’d like to sit in a bar and chat with him, too, as adults. I missed out on everything. Conversations, little moments, father-son stuff”.

Last.....I loved this quote by Jack Kerouac which was on the wall of Liz’s when she was a teenager:
“The only people for me are the mad one’s. The ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous at everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say commonplace things, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars”.


This novel is soooooooooo GOOD! Extraordinary depth and beauty!!!

A 2019 BIG TIME FAVORITE!!!

MANY THANKS TO MY BUDDY REFERRAL, *Peter*!

Many thanks to Penguin Press, Netgalley, and Benedict Wells

“A difficult childhood is like an enemy. You never know when it will strike.”

This quote pretty much sums up what The End of Loneliness is all about. Jules is the youngest of three siblings. His parents die when he is 11 years old, and he and his siblings go live in a boarding school. Later in life, Jules looks back on different points in his life — how he and his siblings distanced themselves from each other and slowly came back together. But, always, for Jules and his siblings, the early loss of their parents affects their relationship to the world and to each other. Knowing young that terrible things can happen leaves lasting scars. And experiencing a terrible loss at a young age doesn’t immunize anyone from further terrible losses. The prose is simple and the story is narrated in a understated way, but this short novel packs a lot of emotions. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.

I had high hopes for this character driven exploration of fate, life, and love but by the halfway point I fizzled out on the story. This is the story of Jules, Marty and Liz, 3 siblings who weather their first tragedy when their parents are killed when they're all still under 16. They're sent to a boarding school and I must say, the author did a fantastic job of portraying the depth of sadness that all 3 experienced because as we learned from the beginning of the story, they were close with their parents and had a happy family life. Jules is the narrator and while I liked him, it did create a situation where I didn't feel like I got to know or understand the story from Liz and Marty's perspectives which I would've liked. Especially Liz as she really struggled after their parents were killed.

I appreciated the author's ability to wax philosophical on fate and chance and how one's life course can be completely altered by both. However, by the halfway mark I wanted more from the story. Not a whole lot was happening outside of us getting life updates on each as the years go by. We know Jules has been in a motorcycle accident and I did wonder what contributed to that situation but I found myself skimming for the second half of the book. I liked the ending but overall, I just more of something...more drama, conflict, tension...something. But great writing and if you like slower, philosophical character explorations this would be for you

This was my first read from Benedict and it was wonderful. Originally written in German, nothing seemed to be lost in translation, I understood and connected with both the story and it's characters.
The End of Loneliness is about loss, unrequited love and lonelines. It was sad in parts, so heartfelt in others, all handled in such a delicate and respectful way. I truly loved it.

I've written a full review on the Literary Hoarders site. Link is included below. This is what I wrote on my Goodreads profile:

This was the first book I read in my own personally created Netgalley challenge. The End of Loneliness is out on January 29th.

While it confirms my great dislike for reading a PDF, I will say I did quite enjoy this book and I'm glad to have requested and read it. There is the strong element of loneliness by each of the characters throughout, so it can seem like a sad story most of the time - but it was written so well and the characters were so real.

{My Thoughts}
What Worked For Me
The Story’s Structure – The End of Loneliness begins near the end of Jules Moreau’s story with a violent accident that leaves him hospitalized. From there his story moves back more than 30 years, to his childhood and the loss of his parents at only 10-years old. Jules and his two older siblings, Liz and Marty, are sent to boarding school where everything about Jules’ already shattered life changes. Being younger, he’s in a different building than his brother and sister, lonely and sad. The three grow up in this school, each in their own way just trying to survive, but in doing so they lose sight of each other. The loneliness is pervasive, until Jules makes a friend in Alva, a day student at his school who, like Jules, has a dark past she’d rather not share. Alva becomes his salvation and his despair.

The Writing – The End of Loneliness received the Europe Union Prize for Literature in 2016, but in the U.S. it’s a book in translation (from German) and sometimes in translation a little something gets lost. Not here! Benedict’s writing was gorgeous, getting to the very heart of so many different emotions, making it pure pleasure to read.

“The fact that I was on a planet hurtling through space at a phenomenal speed seemed just as terrifying to me as the new, disturbing thought that death was inevitable. My fears grew like a crack slowly spreading in all directions. I began to be afraid of the dark, of death, of eternity. These thoughts drove my world, and the more often I contemplated them, the bigger the gulf between me and my often carefree, cheerful fellow students. I was alone.”

Love – I’m not a fan of traditional love stories, but there is nothing traditional about The End of Loneliness. And yet, it is a love story, a story of love in all its many forms. Benedict covers a child’s love for his parents, the love between a man and a woman, a father’s love for his children, and the love between siblings which for me was the best of his love stories. I don’t want to give anything away, but I found the shifting sibling dynamics to be so real in their sadness, frustrations, commitment, and love.

“Every day I waited for a sign from Liz, for a letter of explanation, a card or a call. Like a castaway tirelessly turning the dials of a wireless, hoping finally to chance upon a voice. But all I heard from my sister was years and years of static.”

What Didn’t
A Bit Dramatic – There were a couple of scenes in the book that some might find a little overly dramatic, though in truth they didn’t really bother me. This was one of those lovely books where most everything worked.

{The Final Assessment}
I found The End of Loneliness to be well worth the accolades it has garnered. Calling something “nice” doesn’t always feel like much of a compliment, but in the best possible sense this was a nice book. It covered family, love, loneliness, growth, change and redemption all in a beautifully told story of one man’s life. I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of The End of Loneliness. You’ll be glad you did. Grade: A-

Note: I received a copy of this book from Penguin Press (via NetGalley) in exchange for my honest review. Thank you!

Lovely slim novel about the impact of early loss. Jules, Marty, and Liz are orphaned young and sent to a boarding school. Jules and Marty meet and develop relationships with Alva and Toni respectively, while Liz does her own thing. Jules feels he is abandoned again and again, as his siblings age out of first the school and then into their own lives. This is very much a character driven tale so those seeking a dynamic plot should look elsewhere. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. A literary novel that's worth your time.

An epic story of the Moreau siblings, with the main focus on Jules. After a devastating car crash that killed both of their parents, Jules, Marty and Liz are shipped off to boarding school. Dealing with separation for the first time, we follow the siblings as they grow up and grow apart.

This is a bit of a downer book. It's sad, as most book about children without parents usually are. While the book focused mainly on Jules, I found that I wanted to know more about Liz.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

When the parents of young Jules, Liz and Marty Moreau die in a car crash, the children are sent to a boarding school. Jules is separated from his brother and sister and has a difficult time adjusting. He once was the only one brave enough to cross a dangerous tree that had fallen across a waterway but now he feels vulnerable and retreats to his memories and books. When he meets Alva, he recognizes a kindred spirit. Alva also has had tragedy in her life. But their friendship falls apart, although 15 years later, Jules still holds hope that they might meet again. She is the only one he can envision going through life with.

This is a tender, beautiful love story. There is a special charm to it that is very touching. It’s not so much what happens in this story as the way the author tells it, which of course is the mark of a talented author. This is a multi-layered novel, asking the questions “What if I had taken a different direction, what would my life be like now?”, “Can happiness be stunted by events when we’re young so we can never know happiness?” and “If you spend all your life running in the wrong direction, could it be the right one after all?” Mr. Wells’ style is quite reminiscent of John Irving’s. I will long remember the story of Jules and Alva.

This is the first of German Benedict Wells’ books that has been translated to English. I hope it won’t be the last. Most highly recommended.

This is a beautifully written book.

Unfortunately, it’s a beautifully written book about vapid and lifeless characters who keep making the same mistakes all over again.

Well, this utterly wrecked me. What a beautiful book.

The End of Loneliness, translated from the German by Charlotte Collins, follows three siblings growing up in Munich, whose parents die in a car accident, leaving them orphaned and forced to attend boarding school. The focus is on Jules, the youngest sibling, who’s more of an observer than a participant in his own life; after his parents’ death he turns inward and fixates on a parallel narrative that he’s crafted of what his life would have been like had they survived. At boarding school he meets Alva, another loner who he’s able to connect with as he and his siblings grow apart, but after school they lose touch and Jules is once more on his own.

With a focus on the complex dynamics between the three siblings, Benedict Wells deftly explores the ripple effect of loss and grief. He also plays with the fallibility of memory in a way that recalls Kazuo Ishiguro, as Jules is recounting events from his childhood years later, and eventually certain cracks begin to form in his carefully curated narrative that suggest he may have chosen to remember certain events in a way that was convenient to him. This is a deeply melancholy book that gives little respite in its misery, but I found its emotional honesty refreshing. And with Jules’ retrospective narration, the grief discussed feels more like a bruise than an open wound (it’s a painful book to read, but not as visceral as something like A Little Life). It did bring me to tears at one point, but it wasn’t the kind of painful that I lost sleep over; it’s more of a quiet kind of haunting that slowly seeps under your skin.

My one criticism is that the end gets a bit twee and Wells insists on wrapping everything up a bit too neatly; maybe he’s playing with the idea that one of the characters floats around, that life is a zero-sum game; maybe he thinks his characters have all suffered enough to have earned a neat ending. But as a reader I ironically feel less fulfilled with the more closure I get, so I would have preferred things to end on a slightly more somber note. 4.5 stars – rounded down for now but maybe I’ll change it depending on how this stays with me.

Also – my advice going into this book is to avoid reading the Goodreads summary if possible (or maybe just read the first paragraph), as it essentially gives a paint by numbers account of the entire plot. It’s not that I felt spoiled while reading – it’s more driven by character than plot anyway – but it’s just unnecessary to give that much away when the book is less than 300 pages to begin with.

'My thoughts roam further back in time, until at last they settle on the calamity that overshadowed my childhood.'

In one tragic instant, Jules, Marty and Liz Moreau’s parents die in a car crash while on a spur of the moment vacation. The sheltered life they knew living in their family home in Munich is over, “it seemed that there were families that were spared by Fate and others that attracted misfortune; and that night I wondered whether my family were one of these.” Jules, eleven years old, along with his older siblings is sent to live in a boarding school, a cheap state-run children’s home, not to be confused with those elite institutions the wealthy attend. “From time to time, particularly criminal specimens would wash up like flotsam at school”, here the children split, no longer bonded to each other as they once were. Jules is no longer confident enough to be the wildly brave joker he was at his old school. He sheds that skin and becomes isolated, insecure, a twister of words as they tangle on his tongue, poorly dressed, sinking into the role of orphan. The other boy he once was only a vague memory. He crosses paths with another student, Alva. Whatever fate has swallowed his parents up, chewed his old secure life has spit out Alva like an offering, his salvation for a time. What makes her decide to befriend him he learns later. His brother Marty seems the same as ever, buried in his intellect, seemingly unaffected by their parent’s deaths. Disinterested in maintaining family connection nor looking out for his brother and sister, set on the path for success he no longer seems to need anyone. Liz, beautiful as ever, like a queen surrounded by her ever-present admirers, always too much, living only in the present, hungry for experience until one day she abandons it all, vanishes without rhyme nor reason is just as distant as Marty. All of the siblings are far more affected by their loss than they know, but it will take years before they see it.

As the years pass, it is Alva Jules confides in, even as they love and date other people. Eventually, they turn to each other but there are secret places inside of her that she doesn’t share. Alva is full of old mysterious wounds and secrets. He hears about his sister only ‘through static’, as she can’t seem to anchor herself anywhere and when she does to land it never lasts. Marty, with a computer science degree is incredibly successful, even finds a girlfriend while scoffing at love but may not be as adjusted as he projects to the world. Jules turns to photography, his father’s love, haunted by the manner in which he once rejected his father’s passions. Afterall, his mother was “the undisputed star of their family” , their father not as easy to warm to. Now, could he make a career from this art form?

As much as his parents and sister slipped through his fingers so did the parallel live he should have been living had his parents never died, too he loses Alva only to find her again years later living in Switzerland. Here, he begins to take writing seriously, having realized his talent for photography isn’t good enough. Alva has a life tangled in complications that he finds himself caught up in and if he has to have her this way, in the shadow of a greatly talented man she admires, so be it. Their love story challenges Jules in ways he never could have imagined, pushing him to play with life or death. He finds himself in Lucerne, Switzerland finally willing to force himself to confront this thing between he and Alva, and to ‘stop chasing after a ghost.’

Just when everything Jules has wanted is aligned and it seems happiness is at last on the horizon, forces beyond his understanding have other plans. What will he do with his grief this time? A haunting story about family, grief, love and how certain pivotal events can change the trajectory of a life.

Publication Date: January 29, 2019

Penguin Books