"After You've Gone" by Jeffrey Lent (ISBN 9780871138941) bills itself as an "extraordinary love story." And I suppose that's true ... except, I'm not sure who the extraordinary love of the main character's life is.

Maybe that's the point.

The novel follows the journey of Henry Dorn, a recently widowed middle age professor in the post-World War I world. Lent does a marvelous job of revealing Dorn, bit by bit, throughout the novel. His characterization of Dorn's marriage is vivid and believable, as is his depiction of Dorn's new relationship.

So which is the extraordinary love? His wife? His new romance? His son? His uncle?

I like to think it's all of them.

- Tricia Ambrose