Where to Start with Amy Bloom
For readers new to Amy Bloom's work, navigating her bibliography is highly flexible but benefits from a few strategic entry points. Because her novels are standalone works, you do not need to follow a strict chronological timeline. However, her short stories feature recurring character arcs that are best read in a specific sequence.
Here are the recommended starting paths depending on your reading preferences:
- For Historical Fiction Lovers: Start with Away (2007). This novel is widely considered her masterpiece. It follows Lillian Leyb, a young Russian immigrant who travels across 1920s America on a desperate search for her daughter. It showcases Bloom's signature style: lyrical, fast-paced, and deeply empathetic.
- For Memoir and Non-Fiction Readers: Start with In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (2022). This raw, heartbreaking, yet occasionally humorous memoir chronicles her husband Brian Ameche's battle with Alzheimer’s and their journey to Switzerland for assisted dying. It is one of her most acclaimed and personal works.
- For Short Fiction Enthusiasts: Start with her debut collection, Come to Me (1993). This collection was a National Book Award finalist and introduces the recurring characters Lionel and Julia, whose lives unfold across multiple decades and subsequent books.
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
Bloom’s novels span multiple eras, exploring themes of found family, complex love, and resilience. They can be read in any order, but reading them in order of publication allows you to witness the growth of her narrative scope:
- Love Invents Us (1996): Her debut novel focusing on a young girl's coming-of-age, exploring the boundaries of love, family, and obsession in a suburban setting.
- Away (2007): An epic journey of a Russian immigrant mother traversing 1920s America, from the Gold Rush West to the frozen North, to find her lost child.
- Lucky Us (2014): Set during the 1940s, this novel follows two stepsisters traveling across America, seeking fame, fortune, and a sense of belonging in the shadow of World War II.
- White Houses (2018): A fictionalized reimagining of the real-life romantic relationship between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and journalist Lorena Hickok.
- I'll Be Right Here (2025): A multigenerational saga that tracks an unconventional, found family forming after World War War II, beginning in Paris in 1930 and moving to Manhattan.
The Short Story Collections and Linked Sequences
While Bloom is a celebrated novelist, she is equally famous for her short stories. A key feature of her short fiction is the use of recurring characters, creating linked story sequences that function almost like fragmented novellas. To fully appreciate these relationships, you should pay attention to how they connect across her collections.
The Lionel and Julia Sequence
This sequence follows Lionel and his stepmother Julia, whose lives are altered by a complicated relationship and a singular, calamitous encounter after the death of Lionel's father. To read their full story in chronological order, follow this path:
- "Sleepwalking" (found in the collection Come to Me, 1993)
- "Night Vision" and "Light into Dark" (found in the collection A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, 2000)
- "Fort Useless and Fort Ridiculous" (found in the collection Where the God of Love Hangs Out, 2010)
The William and Clare Sequence
Another major linked sequence in Bloom's writing follows the characters William and Clare through their secret affair, subsequent divorces, marriage, and the challenges of aging. This entire arc is contained within a single collection:
- Where the God of Love Hangs Out (2010): This book features a four-part sequence tracking William and Clare's relationship over several decades, interspersed with other standalone stories.
Omnibus Collection
- Rowing to Eden (2015): If you want a comprehensive volume, this book compiles the stories from her first three collections (Come to Me, A Blind Man Can See How Much I Love You, and Where the God of Love Hangs Out) into a single edition, making it an excellent all-in-one resource for her short fiction.
Publication Order of Non-Fiction
Bloom has written two major non-fiction books that showcase her psychological insight and journalistic background:
- Normal: Transsexual CEOs, Crossdressing Cops and Hermaphrodites with Attitudes (2002): An empathetic, journalistic exploration of gender identity, anomalies, and non-traditional sexualities.
- In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss (2022): Her memoir about love, partnership, and navigating her husband's terminal diagnosis and decision to end his life.
What to Know Before You Start
Amy Bloom’s background as a practicing psychotherapist heavily influences her writing. Her characters are frequently described as beautifully flawed and human, dealing with unconventional relationships, grief, and identity. Whether she is writing about historical figures like Eleanor Roosevelt or fictional immigrants in the 1920s, she avoids sentimentality, choosing instead a blend of sharp wit and raw honesty. Standalone novels like White Houses and Away require no background knowledge, but her short fiction is highly rewarding for readers who enjoy piecing together character lives across collections.