Copyright

      The Borough Press

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd

      1 London Bridge Street

      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      Published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2019

      Copyright © Louisa Young 2018

      Cover photographs © Margie Hurwich/Arcangel Images, © Shutterstock.com

      Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018

      Louisa Young asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

      This book is a work of non-fiction based on the author’s experiences. In order to protect privacy, names, identifying characteristics and details have been changed.

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

      Source ISBN: 9780008265205

      Ebook Edition © June 2018 ISBN: 9780008265199

      Version: 2019-01-28

       Praise for You Left Early

      ‘Rich and moving and beautifully written’

       The Times

      ‘Spectacular. I can’t stop thinking about it. Louisa Young is a beautiful, beautiful writer . . . an unflinching honesty that feels like a great gift to the reader’

      Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

      ‘Beautiful . . . sobering . . . at heart, an old-fashioned love story’

       Daily Mail

      ‘An extraordinarily candid bereavement memoir . . . As much as it’s an overwhelming love letter, Young’s book is also a sobering reminder of the devastating effects of alcoholism, not just on an individual’s life, but on everyone else around them’

       Evening Standard

      ‘The most riveting, heartbreaking book I’ve ever read about addiction, but above all about the nature of love. Already one of my books of the year’

      Linda Grant

      ‘As honest as the morning after and the best account of loving against all sense since Penelope Mortimer’s The Pumpkin Eater’

      Patrick Gale

      ‘I’m still fucking crying. And it’s such a great work of art. I wish I’d read it before I worked as a drug and alcohol counsellor’

      Philippa Perry

      ‘Oh my God, it’s so beautiful, and heartbreaking, and true’

      Sam Baker, The Pool

      ‘An important book, one that demands we rethink a culture of blame around alcoholism’

       Daily Express

      ‘I inhaled You Left Early like crystal meth from a red-hot pipe . . . a beautiful compelling book and a galloping read too’

      Rachel Johnson

      ‘An extraordinarily powerful and moving work . . . [a] beautiful book which I devoured in two sittings. Amazing’

      Emma Thompson

      ‘Brilliant: generous and clear-sighted and deeply poignant’

      Reverend Richard Coles

      ‘I am upset, astonished, compelled, grateful. The sheer work of loving comes through . . . Quite brilliant’

      Suzanne Moore

      ‘Anyone who has known a great love will get this book. Sexy and intellectual. I was very moved’

      Monique Roffey

      ‘If the greatest act of devotion is to conjure the dead beloved in all their vivid, imperfect, mesmerising humanity, then Louisa Young’s book is a memorial to equal the Taj Mahal . . . Anyone who has ever loved an addict will recognise . . . what she has to say’

      Rowan Pelling, iNews

      ‘Compulsively and painfully readable – beautifully written and enormously sad’

      Lissa Evans, author of Crooked Heart

       Dedication

      For everyone who has found themselves here

       Epigraph

      Inversion of Intervals:

      Major becomes Minor.

      Perfect stays Perfect.

      Augmented becomes Diminished.

      from Robert Lockhart’s

      music theory notebook

      1969