It's the first day of the school holidays and Pete is off to the local lake to go fishing with his friend, when they come across an injured dog at the side of the road. Pete instantly feels compelled to help, but his friend does not, and so begins a journey that is about to change the lives of many.
Dr Lucy is a recluse, she keeps to herself, and has transferred her skills, into helping animals as well as people. She survives on an allowance from her ex, a little ingenuity and the odd, I'll ask no questions, so you tell no lies, patch up job, for those who've hurt themselves, doing the kind of Job, you don't want their to be records of.
Justin and Calvin are new to the neighbourhood. Calvin is working at the local plant in order to support his son, but this means, Justin has to keep himself occupied. When he see a boy pulling a little mini trailer with a rather large dog inside, his curiosity gets the better of him and they strike up a friendship in which the colour of Justin skin, becomes the catalyst for disaster.
On finishing this book, I just sat there for a moment, trying to process not only what I had read, but all the emotions that were flying around inside me.
The sadness and heartache faced by each of these characters, is devastating and I was so angry at a world that had made them have to suffer this way.
But of course we never learn. We continue to discriminate in different ways, never learning from the past, and atrocious crimes have been carried out all over the world, due simply to peoples differences.
In this book Catherine captures the horror and emotions behind these types of events perfectly and shows how much worse things were back in the 50's and 60's in America, compared with today.
Her characters are incredibly well developed and believable and as a result, I found myself deeply absorbed in their story and longing for everything to work out alright for all of them.
She takes you into a world of pain, hate, anger, fear and reminds us that no matter how much hatred there is in the world, there are always pockets of kindness too.
I loved this book from the very first page to the very last. And few books are able to effect me as deeply as this one did. I would definitely be interested in reading more by this author in the future.
If you would like to check out the blurb or grab a copy for yourself, you can do so by clicking here, It's available in a whole host of formats, and if you have kindle unlimited, you can read this one for free. (Note this was the case at the posting of this blog post and may have change since)
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