It's my turn on the BlogTour The Cookbook of Common Prayer by Francesca Haig.
About the Author
Francesca Haig grew up in Tasmania and is an academic and writer, whose poetry and YA/crossover fantasy have been widely published. She lives in London with her husband and son. This is her first novel for adults. Follow @FrancescaHaig on Twitter, Visit francescahaig.com
About the book
A heart-rending tale of a family in turmoil after the death of a child is kept secret from one of his siblings.
When Gill and Gabe's eldest son drowns overseas, they decide they must hide the truth from their desperately unwell teenaged daughter. But as Gill begins to send letters from her dead son to his sister, the increasingly elaborate lie threatens to prove more dangerous than the truth.
Told through alternating perspectives, and moving between Tasmania and London, this is a novel about family, food, grief and hope.
For readers of Celeste Ng, Delia Owens, and Anne Tyler, this dramatic, poetic novel explores the many ways that a family can break down - and the unexpected ways that it can be put back together.
Review
I will be counting this as one of my top reads for 2021. It's an evocative story about a family dealing with the death of their loved one by concealing his death from one of his siblings in an attempt to save another of their children.
With this first venture out of the YA sub-genre, the author shows incredible depth and maturity in her storytelling and character development. The element of grief is viewed from the perspective of each character, all of whom react differently to the tragedy that threatens to make their world implode.
There is no statistically proven adhering to stages of grief in order to cope, because the truth is grief doesn't read the same books or listen to the same experts we do. It has it's own agenda and can be very different for each person, especially when it comes the position in the family hierarchy or dynamics - and this very important nuance is exactly what Haig captures.
As if the above wasn't enough to capture the attention of the reader and hold it with an equal measure of sympathy and empathy, indeed there were moments that tugged at the heart and opened the doors for silent weeping. It's beautiful. I loved it. It's the kind of book I would (and will) buy for others and just say - read this.
Buy The Cookbook of Common Prayer at Amazon Uk or go to Goodreads for any other retailer. Published by Allen and Unwin - Hardback & eBook | 3 June 2021 | £14.99. Buy at Amazon com. Buy at Waterstones.
