My mom has always been such a wonderful caregiver for me. Growing up as a child with multiple chronic illnesses, she stepped up to the plate to be the greatest mother of all time. Once I saw the synopsis of this book, it was an immediate read for me.
Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy in exchange for my honest review.
The story has two time periods going on at once. It starts with Mara as a 26 year old working as a caregiver for a woman with stomach cancer. The other part of this novel focuses on the relationship developement between Mara and her mother during the 80s Rio de Janeiro revolution and how it has lead to Mara’s career choice.
Let me preface this and say that this isn’t a book I would normally read. It’s not a genre I gravitate towards. This book was full of emotions. The author, Samuel Park, had passed away from stomach cancer just after writing this book which took on a whole meaning for me while reading it. Although I did love the mother-daughter relationship depicted throughout the novel, the story never captured my attention. I felt like I was overhearing someone’s life story and didn’t really want to keep eavesdropping. The situations they had to go through are not lighthearted and not to be dismissed as dull, but I was anticipating a little more. It could be that I read so many thrillers that I’m always anticipating something to jump out and I’m just not used to reading something like this. In the end, it was very well written.
3/5 Stars
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