My Name Is Anton

My Name Is Anton is a novel by award-winning American author, Catherine Ryan Hyde. After a truly horrible year in which eighteen-year-old Anton (call me Anthony) Addison-Rice loses his loving and beloved grandfather, his mentally-ill older brother and his own right hand, his parents take his "I'm OK" at face value and depart for a three-week South American vacation in early December, leaving him on his own.

Anthony is fiddling with his early Christmas present, a telescope, when he accidentally sees a young woman in an apartment across the road being physically abused by her husband. Over the next few days, he manages to find her, express his concern for her welfare, and offer the family's apartment as a refuge should she need it.

She turns up, beaten again, in the middle of the night, and he promises to help her escape, while promptly falling in love with this woman theoretically old enough to be his mother. Sound advice from his cherished grandmother helps him understand what he must do if he loves her as much as she suspects he does: "What's best for her, even if it doesn't include me."

He lets her go, and his heartbreak triggers the reaction to all the grief he has been suppressing. His recovery is aided by the words and actions of his wise great uncle, and he steps out into the world to live his life, but never forgets her parting words: "I love you too." And then, one day, fifteen years later, he bumps into her on the train…

As with many of this author's novels, this one is very much character-driven, and she gives those characters wise words and insightful observations and sound philosophies to deal with the challenges life throws at them. Ryan Hyde easily captures the era, from 1965 to the present day, and takes the opportunity to include two of her favourite diversions, star-gazing and horses, into this wonderfully moving love story.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing