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A review by debtat2
The Missing Daughter by Emily Gunnis
5.0
An all consuming, heartbreaking, heartwarming read with an ending that will both shock and possibly delight you!
Some families are more dysfunctional than others and this is a tale about a family divided, torn apart from a violent past, but pulling together when the chips were down!
Before the war, Harriet was a happily married woman to Jacob, a loving and caring man, but after the war, when the lucky ones made it home, the man she married had changed beyond recognition and suffering with chronic battle neurosis. A condition that will reverberate time affecting several generations of the family.
Jump forward to 2014 and Harriets daughter, Rebecca, is now a mother herself to two grown-up young ladies, Iris and Jessie. However, her relationship with her first born, Jessie is fractured, but now that Jessie is about to become a mum for the first time herself she reaches out to her mother to find out about her own birth and the postnatal psychosis her mother had suffered for fear of history repeating itself.
The story is told by alternating between the woman’s points of view as well as Rebecca’s ex husband and switches between ‘then’ and ‘now’, but it is really easy to follow, even for me and I am terrible remembering names and dates at the best of times!
All the characters are an engrossing read and even though he had physically violent outbursts toward his wife my heart still went out to him for everything he had witnessed in the war and the lasting, life changing effects it had on him. But out of all the characters I fell in love with Rebecca and was championing her all the way!
And all the while this family drama is unfolding, the past keeps battling forward, rearing its ugly head whilst delivering some long held secrets, along with a shock or two!
The whole book was an absolute dream to read, but the ending! OMG! Literally out loud making my own daughter jump
Some families are more dysfunctional than others and this is a tale about a family divided, torn apart from a violent past, but pulling together when the chips were down!
Before the war, Harriet was a happily married woman to Jacob, a loving and caring man, but after the war, when the lucky ones made it home, the man she married had changed beyond recognition and suffering with chronic battle neurosis. A condition that will reverberate time affecting several generations of the family.
Jump forward to 2014 and Harriets daughter, Rebecca, is now a mother herself to two grown-up young ladies, Iris and Jessie. However, her relationship with her first born, Jessie is fractured, but now that Jessie is about to become a mum for the first time herself she reaches out to her mother to find out about her own birth and the postnatal psychosis her mother had suffered for fear of history repeating itself.
The story is told by alternating between the woman’s points of view as well as Rebecca’s ex husband and switches between ‘then’ and ‘now’, but it is really easy to follow, even for me and I am terrible remembering names and dates at the best of times!
All the characters are an engrossing read and even though he had physically violent outbursts toward his wife my heart still went out to him for everything he had witnessed in the war and the lasting, life changing effects it had on him. But out of all the characters I fell in love with Rebecca and was championing her all the way!
And all the while this family drama is unfolding, the past keeps battling forward, rearing its ugly head whilst delivering some long held secrets, along with a shock or two!
The whole book was an absolute dream to read, but the ending! OMG! Literally out loud making my own daughter jump