Annie has lived in charming Passamaquoddy, Maine, her entire life. She and her husband, Sam, have been together since high school. Even after college, they returned to their beloved Passamaquoddy and took a gamble on buying the town’s landmark sandwich shop (renamed Annie’s Samwich), home of the legendary Paul Bunyan Special Sandwich, which is so delicious that tourists have been known to fill their carry-on bags with extras to bring home with them. Sam and Annie have a successful business, a strong partnership and a happy marriage. The only lingering sadness is their string of miscarriages, culminating in a devastating stillbirth.

Annie has only recently resigned herself to not having children of her own when a seemingly routine visit to her family doctor --- following up on a persistent cough --- reveals many masses on her lungs. Dr. Buckley refers her to a specialist but encourages her to prepare for the worst --- and to share her diagnosis with her husband and her mother, Ursula, saying, “One thing I know is that your mother and Sam will be a great support to you.”

"MINUS ME is an odd and at times infuriating book that I can envision sparking vigorous debate at a book club. Annie’s approach to her diagnosis might be read by some as hopelessly romantic and by others as simultaneously passive and patronizing."

However, Annie suspects that couldn’t be farther from the truth. Sam is still recovering from a debilitating bout of depression following their daughter’s stillbirth, and Ursula --- a glamorous and selfish actress who always seems most concerned about her own self-image --- has typically been the opposite of supportive. So, against her doctor’s advice, she decides to keep the news to herself, instead channeling her anxiety and hopes for her husband’s future into a kind of self-help guide/advice manual for him to consult after she’s gone. She also harbors a hope that perhaps Sam and her best friend, Rachel, will find happiness with one another after her seemingly inevitable demise.

Up until this point, MINUS ME reminded me somewhat of Jojo Moyes’ early books or the Sarah Polley film My Life Without Me. I was prepared for a real tear-jerker of a novel. But once Ursula arrives in Passamaquoddy, accidentally learns Annie’s secret, and whisks her off to New York City to consult with a specialist, the book takes a very different turn. Annie and Sam’s seemingly invincible relationship is tested, somewhat surprisingly, by this brief separation more than by any of their previous trials. Both parties, it seems, are operating under clouds of mistrust and misunderstanding, which, in Annie’s case, could be cleared up quite readily.

Annie is at times a rather frustratingly passive character, one who seems all too willing to let her life burn down around her rather than take decisive action. But when, at last, she gets some answers that will change her and Sam’s life, is it too late to stop the events that already seem (to Annie at least) out of her control?

MINUS ME is an odd and at times infuriating book that I can envision sparking vigorous debate at a book club. Annie’s approach to her diagnosis might be read by some as hopelessly romantic and by others as simultaneously passive and patronizing. Similarly, the novel’s resolution --- which I won’t spoil here --- is likely to be fairly divisive. But if there’s one thing everyone will be able to agree on, it’s that you’ll want to find some way to sample that mouthwatering Paul Bunyan sandwich.