The Last Act of Love - Cathy Rentzenbrink

I did not know then that there is a world between the certainties of life and death, that it is not simply a case of one or the other, and that there are many and various fates worse than death.

When we think of love, what do we think of? Romantic love, parental love, friendship – all are widely covered in the pages of books. Accounts of sibling relationships are harder to find, yet for many of us it is one of the most profound relationships of our lives; one of our earliest encounters with love, one which stays with us throughout our lives.

The Last Act of Love is a book about Cathy Rentzenbrink’s own relationship with her brother, Matty. In 1990, when Matty was just weeks away from getting his GCSE results, he was in a hit and run accident and left in a permanent vegetative state. This book is the love that came before this event and what happens in the aftermath of tragedy.

Rentzenbrink’s memoir is absorbing, original and profoundly affecting but, more than that, it is essential. It is a book you read and then immediately feel the urge to press into someone else’s hands. It is so generous spirited that reading it feels like a gift - a gift that simply begs to be passed on.