Synopsis:
It’s 1965, and life has taken a turn for the worst for eighteen-year-old Anton Addison-Rice.
Nearly a year after his brother died in a tragic accident, Anton is still wounded — physically and emotionally. His parents have gone on a vacation to South America and left him home alone in New York City for the holidays. And one evening he looks out the window and catches a glimpse of his neighbor, Edith, in her apartment across the street. Anton realizes that Edith is in danger and he must help her.
Anton is determined to help Edith leave her abusive marriage. Frightened and fifteen years Anton’s senior, Edith is slow to trust. But Anton provides hera a safe place to stay and she begins to let her guard down. Over the course of the next ten days an unlikely friendship develops.
But as Anton falls hopelessly and selflessly in love, Edith fears her husband will find her and harm Anton. She must disappear without telling anyone where she’s going — even Anton.
If keeping Edith safe means letting her go, Anton will say goodbye to her forever. At least that’s what he believes.
What would happen, though, if one day their paths crossed again?
New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde delivers a hopeful novel about sacrifice, two lost souls, and enduring love.
Review:
Author Catherine Ryan Hyde infuses her novels with her unique voice and preeminent storytelling prowess. Her tales, told in a straight-forward, no nonsense but distinct style, focus on relationships and the myriad ways in which life events change people and their relationships. In her writing, Hyde says she repeatedly returns to one question: “What is our responsibility to each other?” She is “fascinated by people who help not because they have to but because they can.” At the center of her latest novel, My Name is Anton, stands a young man who feels a responsibility to a woman he has never known and risks his own well-being in order to help her when he inadvertently realizes that she is in danger.
Anton is just eighteen years old and has endured an unspeakable tragedy — the death of his older brother and only sibling, Greg, just a year earlier. Anton was also catastrophically injured. Since losing his right hand, Anton has been struggling to overcome the inevitable depression that descended upon him and learn to function with just one hand. Before departing on December 10, his parents presented him with the Christmas present he wanted: a telescope and tripod. And then they callously left him “entirely alone. For weeks. For the first time in his life.”
With his telescope set up on the balcony of his family’s thirteenth floor apartment, Anton realizes that the telescope is pointing downward at the apartment building across the street. Just as he realizes that he is looking through someone else’s window and into their apartment, he sees a woman scrambling as though trying to get away from someone. Then a male hand comes into view, and Anton watches as the hand grabs the woman by her hair and yanks her out of his sight. “I have to do something,” Anton says aloud to himself. The police dispatcher is no help because Anton does not know the address of the building across the street, so he sets off to find the address and the number of the apartment in which he saw the woman being abused. Anton has no way of knowing that his life will never be the same. When Edith opens the door, Anton makes up a ridiculous story about taking a door-to-door survey. There is discoloration below Edith’s left eye.
Love is when you can make the following statement, and mean it: “What’s best for her, even if it doesn’t include me.” Otherwise you just love the way you feel when she’s around, and you want to be selfish with that — hang on to it at all costs, even if it harms her. . . . Do you love her enough to put her welfare first? If not, what you feel is what ninety-nine percent of the world is satisfied to call love . . . It’s the hardest thing in the world. . . . Most grown-ups can’t even get close to that kind of unselfish love.
The next day, Anton sees Edith leave her apartment building and follows her to the coffee shop down the street. When she recognizes him, Edith strikes up a conversation and she is shocked to learn that Anton was looking for her when he knocked on her apartment door. Reminding Anton that they are total strangers, she is taken aback when Anton asks her, “How well do I need to know a person before I’m allowed to prefer that nothing terrible happens to them?”
So begins a friendship like none either of them has ever known before. Anton convinces Edith that she must leave her husband, and shelters her in his family apartment. The two gradually realize that they have much in common, despite their age difference. Anton opens up to Edith about what happened to Greg and what his life has been like since that horrible day. As the days pass, Edith realizes that Anton is falling in love with her and she also cares deeply for him. But she is 33 years old and convinced that Anton is a gentle, kind young man who is experiencing deep feelings for a woman for the first time. But the two of them cannot share a future. Edith needs to leave in order to start a new life for herself, away from her violent husband who will hurt Anton if he believes that Anton knows her whereabouts. So she insists that Anton must not know where she goes when she departs. As they say good-bye, they believe they will never see each other again.
Or will they?
The story continues 15 years later. In 1980, Anton is the same age Edith was when the two of them met and spent those precious days together, and living with a girlfriend in California. But to divulge more about the plot would be to spoil the pure joy of reading My Name is Anton and discovering what ultimately happens to Anton and Edith.
Hyde has again created characters who are endearing, empathetic, and heart-breakingly believable. Anton is close to his grandmother, Marion, an opinionated, wise widow who recognizes in Anton the traits that his own mother is unable to see or appreciate. Likewise, his great-uncle Gregor provides Anton the support and understanding that his parents are incapable of giving him. Unlike his parents, they really see Anton and recognize how much pain he is in. Just as Anton recognized that his brother was suffering, even though his parents could not.
Through his interactions with those supporting characters, Hyde compassionately reveals Anton’s feelings, values . . . and anger. Anton is a very angry young man . . . for very good reasons. Hyde credibly chronicles how Anton matures, learns to stand up for himself, and comes to understand the value of erecting strong boundaries in order to shield himself from further pain and maintain the equilibrium he works so hard to establish. In her typical fashion, Hyde makes no effort to conceal the compassion and affection she feels for her characters, which makes it impossible for readers not to find a place in their own hearts for them. Anton and Edith are fundamentally good people who face obstacles that could easily prove insurmountable for less principled, determined, and strong people.
Hyde explores the tragic repercussions that befall a dysfunctional family, as well as societal ideas about coupling norms during the time period. Prejudice against a woman involved with a man younger than her was open and, indeed, acceptable.
At its core, My Name is Anton is a thoughtful, beautiful romance. A story about two people who are surprised to find each other, but recognize that they have been given a rare gift, and are wise enough to cherish it. It’s the story of a man who has the strength and character to love a woman selflessly and unconditionally, and a woman who recognizes how lucky she is to find such a man. It’s the kind of hopeful, emotionally rewarding story that might just make the most cynical reader believe in the power of love . . . again.
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