The author of this book is variously shown as Michael Baron or Lou Aronica. I don't know if they are the same person, or if they co-wrote the book. It doesn't much matter. I downloaded it on my Kindle free over a decade ago and finally got around to reading it when travelling.

I liked the book very much. The style is that of women's fiction but the main protagonist is a man - a likeable, believable person called Gerry who was happily married until his wife suddenly died, as we learn at the start of the book. His teenager daughter disappeared shortly before, and doesn't yet know... and Gerry is left with a two-month old baby, whom he has to look after.

There's a romantic thread, one filled with poignancy as Gerry struggles to come to terms with what has happened. He has to make some hard decisions and find some way of moving forward, still grieving, but finding ways to put aside his feelings of guilt and depression. I thought this very difficult situation was very well handled - and if the ending is a tad too neat and tidy, it didn't worry me at all.

Recommended.

Longer review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2022/09/when-you-went-away-by-michael-baron... ( )

Gerry Rubato is struggling with the sudden, wholly unexpected death of his wife, raising their now four-month-old son by himself, and the aching absence of his much-loved daughter Tanya, seventeen years old, who ran away just a month before her baby brother Reese was born, and three months before her mother's death.

We meet Gerry and Reese as Gerry is returning to work, leaving his son for the entire work day for the first time since his wife Maureen's death. It's tough for him to do, but he knows it's necessary, and he hires the best baby-sitter available, and goes to work. Real life resumes for him.
Gerry works his way through the unsettling feelings of everyone worrying and treating him differently until they get used to him being back, and his boss's frustration and subsequent hostility when he won't leave his four-month-old son for a long weekend in order to be included--for the first time--in the company executives' annual retreat. The most unsettling experience of all, though, is developing a friendship with a woman newly added to his team.

Ally is smart, funny, attractive, and sympathetic to his loss without making him feel self-conscious. They chat, trade jokes, share ideas, and become friends. When they take the first steps toward moving their relationship outside the office though, Gerry panics. What kind of a man is he, interested in another woman just five months after his beloved wife of eighteen years has died?

He works through his panic, he and Ally move ahead, and he develops a new, stronger friendship with his late wife's sister Codie, even as he and Codie share their frustration at Codie's parents' refusal to come north and meet their new grandson. Running through the whole story is Gerry's concern for his missing daughter, who ran off with her twenty-year old boyfriend, dropped out of sight, and contacts him only by email sent through a remailer, to hide her location. Tanya doesn't know her mother is dead, because he has no way to get a message back to her. Gerry begins writing a journal, the things he wants to tell his daughter and can't.

This is a warm, sensitively told tale, written with grace and dignity. Gerry's emotions are real and human, and treated with respect. Everyone involved tries to do the right thing, which doesn't mean there is no conflict. There is plenty of conflict--the most important of which is within Gerry himself.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher. ( )

Gerry Rubato is struggling with the sudden, wholly unexpected death of his wife, raising their now four-month-old son by himself, and the aching absence of his much-loved daughter Tanya, seventeen years old, who ran away just a month before her baby brother Reese was born, and three months before her mother's death.

We meet Gerry and Reese as Gerry is returning to work, leaving his son for the entire work day for the first time since his wife Maureen's death. It's tough for him to do, but he knows it's necessary, and he hires the best baby-sitter available, and goes to work. Real life resumes for him.
Gerry works his way through the unsettling feelings of everyone worrying and treating him differently until they get used to him being back, and his boss's frustration and subsequent hostility when he won't leave his four-month-old son for a long weekend in order to be included--for the first time--in the company executives' annual retreat. The most unsettling experience of all, though, is developing a friendship with a woman newly added to his team.

Ally is smart, funny, attractive, and sympathetic to his loss without making him feel self-conscious. They chat, trade jokes, share ideas, and become friends. When they take the first steps toward moving their relationship outside the office though, Gerry panics. What kind of a man is he, interested in another woman just five months after his beloved wife of eighteen years has died?

He works through his panic, he and Ally move ahead, and he develops a new, stronger friendship with his late wife's sister Codie, even as he and Codie share their frustration at Codie's parents' refusal to come north and meet their new grandson. Running through the whole story is Gerry's concern for his missing daughter, who ran off with her twenty-year old boyfriend, dropped out of sight, and contacts him only by email sent through a remailer, to hide her location. Tanya doesn't know her mother is dead, because he has no way to get a message back to her. Gerry begins writing a journal, the things he wants to tell his daughter and can't.

This is a warm, sensitively told tale, written with grace and dignity. Gerry's emotions are real and human, and treated with respect. Everyone involved tries to do the right thing, which doesn't mean there is no conflict. There is plenty of conflict--the most important of which is within Gerry himself.

Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher. ( )

When You Went Away by Michael Baron
After reading Michaels' soon to be released book and enjoying
it I got several of his other books. This one is about Gerry
who has lost his wife Maureen and he's left with his 4 month
old son Reese. Tanya he hopes will come home back to Long
Island, NY in time. The story goes back to happier times
with the family and then up to date where he's just hired
Lisa to take care of the baby so he can return to work.
He spends his whole day with his son, watching him laugh, as
he walks around the house with him pointing everything out,
especially the pictures of his mother and sister. As time
goes on we do learn why the daughter has run away with 2
years of high school being a straight A student,... It was
a surprise to him also when Maureen told him she was pregnant.
He is back to work and others in the family's life stop in
to lend support and bring him up to date with their latest
news. Love how the talks to his son about the Yankees play
by play action in preseason games. His sister in law Codie
has heard from Tanya and they confide in one another. The
journal Maureen had given him one year was going to be put
to good use...like how he uses it to move on with his life
at the same time recording his thoughts and feelings about
how his daughter had changed their lives. He intellectually
connects with a lady in his office where her job for the
Christmas catalog is to pitch ideas at him and they discuss
why they might work or might not. He's agreed to have dinner
with her and this will be the first time since he lost his
wife. Love how everything is brought full circle by the end
of the book, didn't see it coming... Because there are only
a few main characters you can get to know them very well.
There are others that come into play and they are both good
listeners and sometimes like to be listened to as well.
Love the honesty, deepness of the topics discussed and the
loving nature he has for all that he comes into contact with. ( )

I liked the story well enough, but felt like there was a little too much of "telling" instead of "showing". Some of the story didn't feel very real, either. The baby Reese was a major character, but I felt like he was idealized and much of the challenge of caring for a baby was missing. ( )