Everyone who I've seen reading this has said it make them bawl, and I (someone who cries at literally everything) somehow still thought this wouldn't make me cry? This is one of the books that's lasted with me the longest this year because the characters were so vivid and touching. I honestly wept for about the last quarter of the book, reading through my tears and I'm now torn between really wanting to read another Mike Gayle book and being afraid for how hard it will stomp on my heart.
Kerry's a single mum trying to give her won the best life. She grew up in care and is desperate to make her son's childhood a better one than hers. Noah is a high-flying lawyer whose inability to open up has his marriage on the rocks. Noah has no idea he had an older sister, until he receives a letter from her. Kerry wants to get in touch, and finally get to know her younger brother again: separated in care, he was adopted whilst she bounced around foster homes until adulthood. However, Kerry's reason for contacting him is a little more complex than just wanting to get to know him as an adult. You see, Kerry's got a secret that will change both their lives forever.
This next part is going to have a whole bunch of spoilers, so if you haven't read the book yet and want to, this is your warning!
As I said before, this book was totally heartbreaking for me. I found the start a bit of a difficult read: I so wanted Noah to want to get to know Kerry after she contacts him and I think I really started to feel empathetic towards her right from the start because of this. Both Kerry and Noah were really likeable characters, although they definitely had flaws, which I loved. I was totally crushed when Noah finds out about Kerry's cancer and I really didn't see it coming. I thought all of the storylines (Noah's struggle to reconcile his past with his present, the care system, childhood trauma, relationship breakdowns) were done very sensitively and very well, but particularly the part of the plot that dealt with Kerry's cancer diagnosis.
I tore through this book, desperate to see what happened next and hoping that Kerry would get better, despite the way things were going. The descent of Kerry's illness was written so well, and I felt the dual narrative perspectives the chapters were written in (either Kerry or Noah) helped to show a bigger picture of what was going on. I want to read more of Mike Gayle's books when I feel emotionally stable enough to because wow, and see if these are written as well as this one.
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