Harper Ellison★ Sage · Lv 7
todayI ugly-cried on a plane. No regrets. Moyes earns every tear.
Fiction
Me Before You
by Jojo Moyes
4.7· 1,542 ratings
Published 2012492 pagesEnglishHeartbreaking · Warm
You only get one life. It's actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.
Why read it
A cheerful small-town woman with no prospects takes a job caring for a wealthy young man left quadriplegic by an accident, who has decided he no longer wants to live. Neither expects that six months could change everything they believe about a life worth living.
The premise
Me Before You follows Louisa Clark and Will Traynor as an unlikely bond grows between a caregiver full of life and a man who has lost his own. Jojo Moyes writes an emotional, funny, and provocative love story that confronts autonomy, disability, and the right to choose one's own end. It refuses easy comfort while delivering a deeply felt romance.
The story behind it
Jojo Moyes published Me Before You in 2012, and it became an international bestseller translated into dozens of languages. Moyes wrote the screenplay for the 2016 film adaptation starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin. The novel's treatment of assisted dying sparked wide debate, and Moyes went on to write two sequels following Louisa.
What awaits inside
- 01
A life worth living
The novel confronts what makes a life meaningful, and who gets to decide that.
- 02
Autonomy and love
It weighs the tension between loving someone and respecting their right to choose.
- 03
Transformation through connection
Both characters push each other to become fuller, braver versions of themselves.
- 04
Class and possibility
Louisa's narrowed horizons expand as Will challenges her to want more from life.
From the book
Will encouraging Louisa to try new experiences, from classical concerts to travel, gradually reopening her narrowed sense of what her life could be.
The trip to Mauritius near the end, where the two share their most honest exchange about his decision and their feelings.
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