A novel about Meg and Rex's loss of their 6 year old son in a car accident. Meg and Even were on their way to Evans first grade school in rural Wisconsin when Cindy Ann, driving drunk, runs a yellow light and hits Meg's car. Evan is killed and Meg only suffers minor injuries. Cindy Ann and her three young daughters are unharmed. Meg and Rex have a very hard time with the slap of the wrist Cindy Ann gets from the accident court. They start legal proceedings against Cindy Ann. The trouble is Meg and Cindy Ann were good friends in school until Cindy Ann disclosed sexual abuse by her stepfather. Then, Megs brother and Cindy Ann's sister become a couple. Rex and Meg decide they with leave Wisconsin and start a new life sailing the world. But Meg discovers she can't sail away from her troubles. ( )

Makes me glad we have the NHS in the UK! ( )

I love A. Manette Ansay's books, and this is my favorite. It is a story of loss, grief, anger, hope and forgiveness. Meg and Rex's only child is killed by a drunk driver, a driver who is an old high school friend of Meg's. Although they've drifted apart, Cindy Ann and Meg were best friends the summer of their sophomore year.
Unable to deal with their grief & anger, Meg and Rex decide to leave their small town in Wisconsin and sail the ocean with no set destination. Along their travels they meet other travelers, trying to leave their own demons behind. But Rex and Meg find that physically leaving the place of the tragedy doesn't help to heal their broken lives, and when Meg returns to Wisconsin a year later, she and Cindy Ann come to terms with their mutual sorrows. A highly recommended book. ( )

A good book, but not astonishing. A woman's personal journey of recovery after the loss of her son. ( )

This book left me breathless. To understand the meaning of forgiveness, to find hope in the hopeless, to acknowledge that we are all essentially the same, to learn to let go of hate, this story is breathtaking! A moment in time that can't be changed. A "miracle child" who is born to a couple in their 40's is six when he is killed in a car accident caused by a drunken driver. That driver, Cindy Ann, turns out to be a high school friend, a mother of three girls who are all unharmed in the crash. The ties between the grief stricken mother, Meg, and Cindy Ann go back to a time when one confided to the other a terrible secret about her stepfather, who later shot himself. Unable to cope with this the knowledge in this confidence, Meg not only turned away, but implied that Cindy Ann might be to blame for what happened. Now, more than 20 years later, Meg tries to come to terms with the fact that her former friend has killed her son, as her friend's children are unhurt. Meg and her husband Rex feel she should be made to pay in some way. They bring a civil suit, but before it is resolved, they decide to leave the small Wisconsin town and all the terrible memories lingering there to live on a cruising sailboat. Meg understands from Rex that the suit has been dropped. Aboard the boat, and in ports where they land, they pretend to those they meet that they are childless. Still the pain and grief are relentless until one night, at a girl's night out with women she has met sailing, startling stories of horror and tragedy are reveiled. Meg comes to understand the secret pain of others. She is driven to find answers for herself, and in doing so, risks everything she has left. One of the best books I have ever read, lilting prose, powerful sentences, astonishing tenderness!
Read this book! ( )