> Skip to content
  • Published: 13 June 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529176094
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

Left on Tenth

A Second Chance at Life



A magical memoir from the New York Times bestselling writer about coming back from the brink of cancer and finding love second time around.

When Delia's beloved first husband Jerry died of cancer in 2015, after thirty-three years of marriage, she struggled without him. Floored by grief, it never occurred to her she would find love again. But fate had other ideas. An article she published about the pain of shutting down Jerry's landline sparked a series of emails with a widower she'd dated in college fifty years ago, and they fell deeply in love.
Delia and Peter found themselves soul mates but as their whirlwind romance came into bloom, Delia was diagnosed with leukaemia - the same that had claimed the life of her sister Nora.
See-sawing between tears and laughter, Left on Tenth is the spirited story of Delia's second chance at love, and a heartfelt and inspirational account of life after cancer.

'A tale of brilliant hope, of heartache and uplift, so refreshing - it is a wonderful read.' Mariella Frostrup
'Illuminating, generous, sparkling with wit, wisdom, humanity and wonder' Rachel Joyce

'I absolutely loved this book. All of life and death and everything in between is in the pages' Clover Stroud

  • Published: 13 June 2023
  • ISBN: 9781529176094
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $24.99

Praise for Left on Tenth

Tender, witty and romantic - there is something so calming about Delia's writing that makes you immediately want to get cosy, slow down and shut off the world for a moment.

Emma Gannon

Playwright and novelist Ephron (Siracusa) balances profound sorrow with unconditional love in this radiant account of the "many left turns, some perilous, some wondrous" that her life took following her husband's death ... Readers will be swept away by this triumphant story.

Publisher's Weekly [Starred Review]

A most anticipated book of 2022

TIME magazine

Best Non-fiction for 2022

Daily Mail

If it's possible to fall in love with someone by reading their story, I just have. A testimony to the power of love, laughter, hair, friendship and cake.

Sam Baker

I absolutely loved this book. All of life and death and everything in between is in the pages, and Ephron has a lightness of touch while getting right to the heart of the matter which is completely addictive. Moving, painful, sweet and funny, it's a beautiful book and a joy to read.

Clover Stroud

Illuminating, generous, sparkling with wit, wisdom, humanity and wonder. There is nothing Delia Ephron is afraid to say; even if it's her inability to say the right thing. This is a luminous memoir that faces the death of the person you love, falling in love a second time, and an illness that threatens everything all over again. There is not one word that does not shine.

Rachel Joyce

Only someone with a heart of stone could resist the charms of Delia Ephron's tender, moving story of late-life love and illness.

Joanna Rakoff

Delia masterfully and hilariously reminds us that there is always more life to be found just around the corner.

Natasha Lyonne

...will make you believe in love again, and also in miracles. And it's so very, very funny.

Sarah Dunn

Commendable for its bracingly blunt humour ... A searingly honest memoir of a battle against cancer, and a testament to the sustaining power of love.

Chloe Walker, Culturefly

A tale of brilliant hope, of heartache and uplift, so refreshing - it is a wonderful read.

Mariella Frostrup, Times Radio

A beautiful story of finding love again in your seventies ... a story of giddy highs and suicidal lows.'

Gwendolyn Smith, i newspaper