“A profound story… Keane’s gracefully restrained prose gives her characters dignity… shows how difficult forgiveness can be—and how it amounts to a kind of hard-won grace.”
NO MAJOR SPOILERS
This terrific novel is the story of two families, the Stanhope’s and the Gleeson’s. The fathers of these two families, Brian Stanhope and Francis Gleason are cops and also partners. They are both married. Francis is married to Lena and has 4 children, and among them is a daughter named Kate. Brian is married to Anne and has a son named Peter. Peter and Kate have a strong attraction to each other, even as young kids.
Eventually, both families will buy homes next to each other. The kids are closer to each other than the parents, who seldom socialize together mainly due to the behavior of Anne, who appears to have some difficulty being sociable.
Eventually there will be a major event between these families which will alter their lives for many years, and this is the basis of the book. What starts out as a coming of age story turns into something else entirely, and the paths the two families are forced to take couldn’t be more different.
The paths that Peter and Kate take will keep you reading with great interest. You will be eager to turn the page, to see what happens next. This book is easily one of the best I have read this year. It is filled with every emotion you can feel and will make you think of how you have handled some crises situations in your life.
Highly recommended.
Reviewed by:
Richard Franco
Added 18th October 2019
