Come Sunday - Book Review

Come Sunday
A Novel by Isla Morley
Picador, August 2010
ISBN: 978-0-312-42977-5, ISBN10: 0-312-42977-0,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 336 pages

Summary
Abbe is a restless young mother living on the outskirts of Honolulu with her husband, Greg, the pastor at a small church. Their lives are suddenly riven by tragedy when their three-year-old daughter, Cleo, is struck and killed by car. As Greg turns to God and community for comfort, Abbe turns inward and reflects upon her own troubled past. Isla Morley brilliantly weaves the story of Abbe’s grief with a gripping tale of her tempestuous childhood in apartheid South Africa---and how Abbe’s father, a villainous drunk, held her family hostage for decades with his rage, until they finally began to plot their escape from him. Come Sunday is a spellbinding drama about a woman breaking free of her grief and of her past, and what it takes to revive hope when all seems lost.

Author Bio
Isla Morley grew up in South Africa during apartheid. During the country’s State of Emergency, she graduated from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth with a degree in English literature. By 1994 she was one of the youngest magazine editors in South Africa, but she left career, country, and kin when she married an American and moved to the United States. For more than a decade she pursued a career in nonprofit work, focusing on the needs of women and children. Now in the Los Angeles area, she shares a home with her husband, their daughter, two cats, a dog, and a tortoise.

My thoughts:
Wow...this was so hard for me to read. The books starts with Abbe trying to get ready in the morning. Trying to get her daughter ready, she easily snaps at her. Which is something we all do. But do we stop to think what if this is the last time I see this person? We don't. And sometimes in life we don't have a chance to make it right later.

The thought of losing a child terrifies me. I don't know how I would go on. And this book hits on ever emotion that a parent would go through. It's a very good book that makes you take a look at your life. Yes, it's fiction....but it can still have an impact. Definitely would recommend.

*Disclaimer: I received this book from Picador for review. The opinion is my own.*