A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe

 

You can buy "A Terrible Kindness"...Here

377 pages

This Review is by Adele Powell 

• The Blurb...

When we go through something impossible, someone, or something, will help us, if we let them . . .

It is October 1966 and William Lavery is having the night of his life at his first black-tie do. But, as the evening unfolds, news hits of a landslide at a coal mine. It has buried a school: Aberfan.

William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job as an embalmer, and it will be one he never forgets.
His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget. But compassion can have surprising consequences, because - as William discovers - giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves.

• Our Review...

I bought this book on a kindle deal for 99p, I was looking for something to read on my commute and quickly bought it before jumping on the tube. I was drawn to this title as the Aberfan disaster is something that is close to my family's heart, both my grandfathers were miners in the Welsh valleys, only a few miles from Aberfan. 

The first few chapters are utterly heartwrenching and beautifully written. I had to stop reading for fear of balling my eyes out in a packed tube carriage. I quickly surmised that this may not be a commute read! But as soon as I got home I carried on reading (with a box of tissues close by!).

There are some graphic descriptions of embalming which could be off-putting for some but I think the author traverses this situation very well. There is enough descrption to help the reader understand how harrowing this experience must have been but it's not too much that it distracts from the emotion of the story. The rest of the book continues to be incredibly written and focuses on the rest of William's life.

It so clearly dipicts how easy it is to miss out on so much when we don't ask others for help. It illustrates how important human connection is and how similar we all really are when it comes to experiencing loss and love.

It's so hard to find any improvement areas in this story. I loved every bit of it. But if I were to be incredibly picky, I would say the supporting character of Martin could have been more fully explored. He was such an interesting character when described in his boyhood, but when we read about his adulthood, we don't know much about the intervening years. I understand this may have been difficult to include for the author as the clear focus of the story is William and his experiences. 

Which leads me onto what I believe is this story's greatest strength. William is such a well written character. You're rooting for him but also during parts you want to shake him because you know he's making silly decisions, and this is what makes him such a realistic and believable character.

He makes decisions and assumptions that we all could make, it makes him incredibly relatable and you want to find out how it all turns out for him.

I would give this book 5-stars and highly recommend it. It's a tough read to begin with but it is beautifully written and touched my heart. It helped me to understand the awful experience the people of Aberfan went through in 1966. 

And although this story is based on a disaster, it shows the resilience of humans, especially when we come together and support each other.

• Selected Quotes...

"You’re like all of us. Sometimes we’re the best we can be, sometimes the worst. It’s called being human."

"What a terrible mess we can make of our lives. There should be angel police to stop us at these dangerous moments, but there doesn’t seem to be. So all we’re left with, my precious son, is whether we can forgive, be forgiven, and keep trying our best." 

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• About The Author...

Jo Browning Wroe grew up in a crematorium in Birmingham. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is Creative Writing Supervisor at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge. A TERRIBLE KINDNESS was shortlisted for the Bridport/Peggy Chapman Andrews award. She has two adult daughters and lives in Cambridge with her husband.