Left on Tenth: A Second Chance at Life: A Memoir

Delia Ephron

Apr 2022 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

The bestselling, beloved writer of romantic comedies like You've Got Mail tells her own late-in-life love story in her "resplendent memoir," complete with a tragic second act and joyous resolution (Adriana Trigiani, bestselling author of The Good Left Undone). Delia Ephron had struggled through several years of heartbreak. She’d lost her sister, Nora, and then her husband, Jerry, both to cancer. Several months after Jerry’s death, she decided to make one small change in her life—she shut down his landline, which crashed her internet. She ended up in Verizon hell.
 
She channeled her grief the best way she knew: by writing a New York Times op-ed. The piece caught the attention of Peter, a Bay Area psychiatrist, who emailed her to commiserate. Recently widowed himself, he reminded her that they had shared a few dates fifty-four years before, set up by Nora. Delia did not remember him, but after several weeks of exchanging emails and sixties folk songs, he flew east to see her. They were crazy, utterly, in love.
 
But this was not a rom-com: four months later she was diagnosed with AML, a fierce leukemia.
 
In Left on Tenth, Delia Ephron enchants as she seesaws us between tears and laughter, navigating the suicidal lows of enduring cutting-edge treatment and the giddy highs of a second chance at love. With Peter and her close girlfriends by her side, with startling clarity, warmth, and honesty about facing death, Ephron invites us to join her team of warriors and become believers ourselves.

A "Most Anticipated Book of 2022" by TIME, Bustle, Parade, Publishers Weekly, Boston.com
A "Best Memoir of 2022" by Marie Claire
A "Best Memoir of April" by Vanity Fair
 

Ratings and reviews

I could not put this book down. Many takeaways, one being Delhia is ans was interested in people who are interested in people. You feel like a friend I have never met. I am interested in your work to help educate Dr's to be empathic. As patients, we tend to remember unempathic comments made either to us or about us. My sincere appreciation for you, Delhia, and your work. I'm reading Syracusa next.....best to you and your continued health. I was lead to this book while watching Delhi as interview on Public Broadcasting....

About the author

Delia Ephron is a bestselling author, screenwriter, essayist, and playwright.  Her novels include the New York Times bestseller Siracusa and The Lion Is In.  She has written books of essays (Sister Mother Husband Dog (Etc.)), books of humor (How To Eat Like A Child), and books for children and young adults. Her movie credits include You’ve Got Mail, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, This is My Life, Michael, and Hanging Up (based on her novel).  Her play, “Love, Loss, and What I Wore,” written with her sister Nora Ephron (based on the book by Ilene Beckerman), ran for two years off Broadway and has been performed internationally.