After I Left You by Alison Mercer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Soaking wet with dripping hair and carrying a gruesome bridesmaid’s dress is not how Anna would have anticipated bumping into her ex – if she’d thought about bumping into him at all after seventeen years. But that’s exactly how Anna comes face to face with the love of her life, the one who hurt her so badly and how she once again connects with old friends from University.
After three years at an Oxford college, when Anna has been part of the ‘cool’ group and fallen in love, things end badly and she hopes she never sees any of that group again but seventeen years later when she has bumped into Victor, her curiosity piques her into contacting her old friend Meg, another of the group and her memories are reawakened. As Anna remembers events the reader is taken back to her Anna’s time at University, a time of first loves, friendships that should have lasted forever, hopes and dreams that were shattered for Anna by a sequence of events that last evening of the Ball.
Although I never attended university myself, I can quite easily imagine how it would have been from Anna’s story. The wanting to fit in somewhere, to find out who you are and to belong. To find love and lasting friendships. Anna’s Uni days were filled with hopes, laughter, friendships and fun until that fateful evening that affected the rest of her life, yet the confusion, the angst, the worries are also there in her group of friends; people from different backgrounds sharing a new and privileged life, learning the ways of the world. The telling of Anna’s story is realistic and engaging, something that every reader will be able to relate to. The small, intimate group of friends that grow as people, purporting to care for each other but when things come to a head there is always a scapegoat, always a loser, always a headstrong person willing to trample over everyone else, always someone willing to be lead. This makes for a fascinating read, the complexities of relationships are depicted really well and the characters are three dimensional, alive, not always likable, certainly with faults but very true to life. Anna herself is an enigma, her adult self is a far cry from the Anna we read about at University but as her story unfolds the reasons why become clear and paint Anna as an ever more empathetic character.
I have read a few ‘old friends meet up again years later’ stories recently but this one is done extremely well and makes for an intriguing read with the reader guessing almost to the end about ‘the event’ that changed Anna. A definite page turner and one to recommend.