Bill Hayes, a memoirist and photographer based in New York City, writes a charming love story to the city and details the loss of romantic partners bookending his initial move to New York and his new life as an established New Yorker.

Famously, Bill Hayes was the partner of the now passed Dr Oliver Sacks and in this book Hayes discusses leaving Los Angeles after the sudden death of an earlier long term partner to a premature heart attack, only to be swept up into a romance with Dr Sacks, their relationship and its age defying and cultural defying nature as Sack’s had been a closeted man. It then details Sack’s cancer and eventual death.

The whole relationship is documented lovingly and sweetly. Something which I lingered on in the telling was the care that Hayes put into not being bitter. Having suffered the loss of two romantic partners, his memoir beginning and ending with loss, it would be easy to see someone fall into despair. Hayes, admirably, writes from a place of love and acceptance.

What first convinced me to read the book was the description of loss in the very beginning chapters, as Hayes details the loss of his partner, Steve—-Of seeking connection and sense in a sudden, unbearable moment. Hayes struck a chord with me early on regarding the nature of grief, yet his optimism, his ability to love again and demonstrate loving again, made this a remarkably wholesome, heartfelt read.