A review by karteabooks
Our Fathers by Rebecca Wait

5.0

 

This book was recommended to me by @busymammabookclub and I really wish that I hadn’t left it on my tbr shelf for so long! 

I must admit though, that I didn’t read the blurb before I chose to read this book, so was completely taken aback by the premise and content, but boy am I glad that I did pick this up. 

What kind of man kills his own family? When Tom was eight years old, his father took a shotgun and shot his family: his wife, his son and baby daughter, before turning the gun on himself. Only Tom survived. He left his tiny, shocked community on the island of Litta and the strained silence of his Uncle Malcolm's house while still a young boy. For twenty years he's tried to escape his past. Until now. Without knowing how to ask, he needs answers - from his uncle, who should have known. From his neighbours, who think his father a decent man who 'just snapped'. From the memories that haunt the wild landscape of the Hebrides. And from the silent ones who know more about what happened - and why - than they have ever dared admit. By turns gripping, beautiful, devastating and tender, Our Fathers is a story about violence and redemption, control, and love. With understated compassion and humour, Rebecca Wait gives a voice to the silenced and to the silences between men of few words. 

A deeply moving, thought provoking and so beautifully written story that it sent shivers down my spine. 

The opening chapters of this book are breath-taking and really set the scene for the whole book. Thus unfolds a story in which we see the community try to come to terms with the aftermath of a terrible tragedy and also how memory can play a cruel part in the healing process. 

Beautifully written with both compassion and humour, this is a book that will stay with me for a long time. 

I highly recommend this very believable and heart–breaking fictional account.