One of my favorite things about being a reader is having a physical reaction to a book. Whether it’s tears or goosebumps or laughter, or in the case of Joshua Henkin’s The World Without You an audible gasp, reacting that strongly to written words is the best thing ever.

It’s even more delightful, because I didn’t expect to be moved by Henkin’s novel that way. It’s not that the book isn’t good and engaging, it is, it just didn’t strike me as a gasper. But there I was in the final third of the book gasping.

read more.