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This heart-tugging emotional story told in a memoir-like format is intimately introspective, brutally honest yet deliciously warm with dollops of life-affirming humor. The narrator is Anna, a chef who loves order and this is accomplished by planning out her life dreams. Her partner is Tobias, a charming musician who is more carefree in his approach to life. But they are soon in a spot that stops them in their tracks – daughter Freya is born with profound disabilities. Anna worries what if she do
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I heard delightful echoes of Candide, Nancy Mitford (*The Blessing*, *Don't Tell Alfred*), even Penelope Fitzgerald (*The Beginning of Spring*) when reading this terrific multi-faceted, tough-love novel. Try to imagine how tricky it is to sustain an over-tone of narrative voice that combines life's utter rip-heart stuff with laughter, but Saira Shah pulls it off trippingly with panache. You don't need me to tell you that today's conventional (and droopingly easier!) tear-stained default is the m
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This is one of those books I picked up thinking I would just browse it, not expecting much. But the story caught me up and I found it a great read. Anna, a gourmet chef, has her life all planned out. She and her husband, Tobias, will have their first child, a girl named Freya, and move to the south of France, where she will teach in a cooking school and Tobias will do...something. However, Freya is born with serious disabilities.Anna and Tobias cannot afford a house in Provence and end up moving
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Anna and her husband Tobias eagerly anticipate the arrival of their first child. When Freya is born, the parents learn she will never develop the way most children do, that she will live a short and difficult life. Anna and Tobias, nevertheless, buy an old home in France and decide to take each day as it comes with Freya.
I suspect this is a very honest look at the anxieties and pain and burdens and resentment and, yes, deep love that comes with having a child who doesn’t grow and change as expe ...more
I suspect this is a very honest look at the anxieties and pain and burdens and resentment and, yes, deep love that comes with having a child who doesn’t grow and change as expe ...more
