Emotional and thoughtful as the reader watches Hugo struggle with big capital-L life decisions. I wasn’t able to connect with the voice but I generally try to read female authors.

This is a very heartwarming book about grief and how it affects one person's life through the course of a year. The author beautifully describes the pain of grief and how difficult it is to find one's balance and start over without their loved one. This is a very real depiction of life after loss. I found it hard to read had just lost my family hence the late review. A very touching realistic look at grieving.

The Year of Oceans is an interesting novel written by Sean Anderson. A story that is relatable and realistic. The characters are well-developed and relatable. An insightful read that shares the story of how someone copes with death. The Year of Oceans is an emotional read full of pain, hope, and resistance. Anyone who has dealt with loss can relate to this story.

The Year Of Oceans by Sean Anderson is a sensitive book about dealing with loss, the overpowering and omnipresent grief that ensues and about individual growth. It was a very likeable read, albeit being on the heavier side of the spectrum.

It was very interesting to read about Hugo, the protagonist, and seeing his journey for an entire year after the loss of his beloved. Many times I found myself feeling a wide spectrum of emotions that the protagonist goes through – sadness, frustration, loneliness, disdain and emptiness. But as the book progresses, the author artfully shows the growth of the main lead in a way that felt very real and relatable.

I loved the writing of the author as it complimented the story well. The story had a good flow to it and I was able to navigate through it easily. I liked the story from start to end, and in spite of an unexpected ending, I felt it was very apt for the book.

The best part about this book, though, was that the subject of death and the grief that one has to cope with afterwards (which is a very tricky one) was handled, to my pleasant surprise, quite skillfully with the much-needed delicateness and subtlety. It was a bit hard for me to read this book as the subject of loss, personally, is agonising for me to handle, but I’m glad that the author respected a person’s sense of loss, in general, and worked gracefully around it, touching on the nerves only as required.

A wonderful book for a debut novel that I’d recommend to everyone and anyone who can handle reading about loss, grief and pain related to a close one’s death.

The premise of this book, a recently widowed man navigating grief and relationships, initially appealed to me but stylistically I found problems with it.