Review by Deb Czajkowski
Forty-year-old Alice and her
fifteen-year-old daughter, Zoe, have always been a tight team of two and for
good reason─make that two good reasons. The first is that Zoe has severe social
anxiety disorder. The second is that they have no family or friends for a
support system. Not that they’ve ever
needed a support system. They’ve done
fine, just the two of them. Until today.
Today Alice is diagnosed with stage
three ovarian cancer. And now she needs help: help for herself, getting her to
appointments and treatments.
Hence, a social worker, Sonja, is assigned
to Alice’s case. Part of Sonja’s role is
to be Alice’s support person throughout her treatments. Out of necessity, Alice
grudgingly agrees. The other part is to support the family. This part Alice refuses, claiming Zoe is
fifteen and fine on her own for a few days. Skeptical Sonja stops by the
apartment anyway to check on her. Unaware
of Zoe’s disorder, Sonja misinterprets Zoe’s lack of eye contact and inability
to converse with this stranger as evasive and secretive and calls in Child and
Family Services, and a terrified Zoe is forced into foster care. Now Alice needs help for Zoe as well─to get
her out of foster care!
Alice doesn’t remember much from that
first, shocking doctor’s appointment, but she does remember Kate, the nurse who
sat there with her and was so incredible kind to her. Still, Alice couldn’t be more surprised when
Kate provides the solution to her Zoe concerns by offering to take Zoe into her
own home while Alice is in the hospital.
So, out of necessity and despite these
complications, this group of four forms a cohesive unit. But each of them
carries a personal secret─four secrets that have the power to destroy.
Author Sally Hepworth’s powerful novel,
a mother’s promise, is incredibly
moving and simultaneously humbling. As
the saying goes, if you don’t like the cross you are carrying, you can exchange
it for another one. But, when you see
how much bigger the other crosses are in the cross room, you hastily leave with
yours, thankful your cross isn’t one of those.
That’s how I felt as I read about Zoe, struggling daily with severe
social anxiety; and Alice, diagnosed at age forty with ovarian cancer and
staring death in the face while she makes plans─just in case!─ for her
daughter’s future without her. Sincerely grateful for my comparatively small
cross!
In a
mother’s promise, Kate and Sonja also have crosses, situations that are
painful and have the potential to devastate their lives and the lives of people
close to them. The author exquisitely
intertwines the lives of these four women─Alice, Zoe, Sonja, and Kate─giving
them as a unit more emotional strength than they each have individually. Yet,
just as it is in real life, just as we can’t phone in the work, just as no one
can fix our problems for us, so also Alice, Zoe, Sonja, and Kate must first own
their problems, and then reach deep inside themselves for the strength to
overcome them.
One word of caution, though. If you’re looking for a book right now that
is easy to put down, that you can read a chapter every now and then and it’s
fine, this isn’t that book. a mother’s promise is a story that will
capture your heart at the very beginning and hold it long after you’ve reached
the end. I challenge you to read the first chapter today and tomorrow to tell
me how many chapters you’ve already read. I promise you that when you’ve finished this
book, you’ll thank me─and Sally Hepworth!
Purchase the book at:
About
the author:
Sally Hepworth is the bestselling author of The Secrets of
Midwives. The Secrets of Midwives has been labelled “enchanting”
by The Herald Sun, “smart and engaging” by Publisher’s Weekly, and
New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised
Sally’s debut novel as “women’s fiction at its finest” and “totally absorbing”.
The Secrets of Midwives was also the highest selling debut Australian fiction
of the year in 2015.
Sally is also the author of The
Things We Keep, published in January 2016. The Things We Keep was a Library
Journal Pick in the U.S. for January 2016, and an Indie Next Pick in the U.S.
for February 2016. NYT bestselling author of The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion
praised The Things We Keep calling it ‘A compelling read that touches on
important themes, not least the different forms that love may take.”
Sally lives in Melbourne,
Australia with her husband and three children.
Connect
with the author at:
St. Martin’s Press is giving one lucky winner
A print copy of The Mother’s Promise
a Rafflecopter giveaway
