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A New England-set love story traverses a lifetime in debut novel

Amy Neff’s debut novel “The Days I Loved You Most” is out now. (Author photo courtesy Sylvie Rosokoff; book cover courtesy HarperCollins)
Amy Neff’s debut novel “The Days I Loved You Most” is out now. (Author photo courtesy Sylvie Rosokoff; book cover courtesy HarperCollins)

Evelyn and Joseph have loved each other for a lifetime. The perfectly adorable couple met in the quaint, seaside Stonybrook, Connecticut as children, and now they are in their 70s with kids of their own. But all great love stories eventually run out of time. Evelyn receives a tragic diagnosis, and Joseph doesn’t want to live in a world without her, so they decide that in a year, they will end their lives.

Author Amy Neff’s debut novel “The Days I Loved You Most” (published July 30) starts at the beginning of that year and retells their journey from 1941 into the early 2000s, reflecting on the challenges they overcame, the love they shared and the time they have left to hold their children and each other close. Neff will discuss the book with Pushcart Prize-nominee and Boston-based editor Sofia T. Romero at Brookline Booksmith on Aug. 27.

The 32-year-old author currently lives in Connecticut with her husband and two sons, but she attended undergrad at Northeastern — that’s why Evelyn goes away to school in Boston in the book. After writing and facing rejections for 10 years, Neff said she signed with an agent and sold the book to HarperCollins in four days. “The Days I Loved You Most” has now sold in over 20 countries worldwide.

I spoke with the author — who grew up in a town in Connecticut similar to Stonybrook — on a Zoom call about the journey to getting published, her connection to Boston and developing a literary love story traversing 60 years.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.


Maddie Browning: What was the process like querying and getting published?

Amy Neff: I faced so many rejections, over 100 rejections on this book, and a little bit of it was timing. I was querying predominantly from fall 2019 through 2022, and as we now know, that was over the pandemic. This book deals with some serious themes around death and illness and end of life, so I was querying these agents and getting these beautiful rejection letters that were saying things like, “We love your writing, we love the story, we love the characters, but there's not a market for this book right now.” … So [it] actually ended up being 10 drafts over 10 years of me writing this book.

What relationships did you draw from in developing Evelyn and Joseph’s devotion to each other?

I always had really beautiful examples of love in my own life growing up. My grandparents had a beautiful love story for over 50 years. They met when my grandma was 15 and [my grandpa] was 17, much like Joseph and Evelyn, and there's so many cute stories of them when they were little or when they were young and in love. My grandfather saw her across the room at a skating rink where he worked, and he picked her out of the crowd and said, “I'm going to marry that tomato” — you know, Italian immigrant. And they just knew right away. Even when they got to be older, he would take long walks and pick her flowers and bring them home for her to put a new bouquet on her table.

Tell me about the town that inspired Bernard Beach in Stonybrook. Is there any connection to “The Babysitters Club”?

No, so it's so funny, I didn't realize that that was what it was called until I was so far into drafting that I was so connected to this … It's based really off this town where I spent my summers and where my family has spent summers for generations … My kids are now the sixth generation of our family on the same strip of shoreline, so it's a really special place … I wanted to explore what it's like to belong, not only to a person in a relationship, but to a place, and the complications of having such deep roots.

[Neff declined to state the town name on the record for privacy reasons.]

Why did you decide to set the story during WWII?

Part of the reason I started in World War II and then ended in the early 2000s is I really didn't want to have technology. In a book, for me, that really pulls me out of the story sometimes, and I wanted to create this feeling of a really timeless love story.

Did you have any influence over the cover design? 

I'm so happy with the cover … I was presented three different paintings, and I got to choose the painting that I liked best … and we actually added the people … and when I got that final design with Joseph and Evelyn as they are now, I was so emotional about it, because it just looked like them, and it felt like them. My older son, who's five now, the book came and he saw it, and he goes “That's you and Dada,” so, of course, I just started crying again.

What are you looking forward to with your event at Brookline Booksmith?

I am so excited to do a Boston event … The first book I wrote is not “The Days I Loved You Most.” I have a book we call in the biz a “drawer book.” It's a book that you write, and it sort of teaches you to write a book, and then you never let anyone see it. I wrote it when I was at Northeastern. I tackled National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo. It's a challenge where people take on an entire full-length draft of a novel in one month's time … I wrote it all over Boston … It's all very full circle.

What makes a strong romantic literary relationship that spans decades?

It has to be believable. It has to be real. Where I have a harder time with a relationship is when it's too perfect or it's just all the grand gestures and not the little moments. I think love is made in the little ordinary moments in every ordinary day.

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Maddie Browning Arts Writer

Maddie Browning is a contributor to WBUR's arts and culture coverage.

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