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We live in a world that embraces divisiveness. We separate ourselves by race, language, and culture. We allow education and wealth to create barriers between us. We pull religion or atheism around us like a full-body shield so no one from another belief system can touch us. We take political sides that polarize us and then demonize those who disagree with our views. And yet, ironically, for all our divisions we are all basically the same. Each one of us breathes, eats, sleeps, and bleeds. We have the inborn capacity to love, to hate, and, despite our many external differences, to dream similar dreams. In her beautiful and powerful debut novel, Hanrahan explores how three women from vastly different backgrounds come to be unified in their aspirations for both their children and a land caught in crushing poverty and social turmoil.
Adelaide is a young Haitian women trapped in a society where there is little hope of rising beyond her economic status. Although poorly educated, unmarried, and with a young daughter born to her as a sixteen-year-old, she still clings to the hope that one day her child will somehow escape the cycle of poverty that binds her mother. Giselle is also Haitian but of a completely different social strata. While she sympathizes with those who struggle in her country, for her, success means one day leaving her island home behind for the good life in the United States, a land where her family will be able to grow and prosper in comfort and peace. Kate, on the other hand, has grown up in America. As a doctor she dreams of making a difference in a third-world country, although that dream of helping those who have such little hope, such as the AIDS patients she worked with during her residency, sometimes puts a strain on her marriage. Over a period of thirty years, circumstances and events will cause these women and their children to cross paths in ways they could have never anticipated, eventually resulting in a unity born out of tragedy and triumph.
Hanrahan, a physician who has a decade of firsthand experience living and working in Haiti and other developing countries, brings a realism to her novel that only one who has seen it for themselves can hope to portray. For those who have never lived in a third-world country some of the scenes of violence such as the boy being set on fire as well as the graphic depictions of poverty and illness may on the surface seem to be something only Hollywood would come up with, but those who have spent a significant time abroad in countries like Haiti will quickly attest to how dead-on accurate her depictions are. Additionally, all of her characters come across as believable, even the minor ones, but the character of Kate, who shares some similar background with the author, is understandably the best developed. Hanrahan's novel has already garnered several honors including the 2015 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award. With its excellent pacing, superb story line, and deft characterizations it is a wonder it hasn't earned even more.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review.