Synopses & Reviews
FINALIST FOR THE COMMONWEALTH PRIZE
Abbe is a restless young mother living on the outskirts of Honolulu with her husband, Greg, the pastor at a small church. Their lives are suddenly riven by tragedy when their three-year-old daughter, Cleo, is struck and killed by car. As Greg turns to God and community for comfort, Abbe turns inward and reflects upon her own troubled past. Isla Morley brilliantly weaves the story of Abbes grief with a gripping tale of her tempestuous childhood in apartheid South Africa---and how Abbes father, a villainous drunk, held her family hostage for decades with his rage, until they finally began to plot their escape from him. Come Sunday is a spellbinding drama about a woman breaking free of her grief and of her past, and what it takes to revive hope when all seems lost.
"South African-born Morley's confident debut explores the intense grief that follows a child's accidental death. Honolulu and Africa are the settings for this absorbing if at times overemphatic novel. The sudden loss of their beloved three-year-old daughter Cleo in a car accident puts a severe strain on Abbe Deighton's relationship with her husband Greg, a minister. Their marriage was already showing symptoms of stress, such as Abbe's flirtation with a colleague, but the couple's divergent methods of dealing with the pain and despair arising from their loss drive a deeper wedge between them. Abbe is prickly and more confrontational than Greg. During her childhood in South Africa, she watched her vicious, racist father terrorize and threaten her long-suffering mother, who prayed for release and eventually poisoned him. Now, Abbe needs to assign blame and can't accept Greg's desire to understand and forgive. A year after Cleo's death, Greg can take no more and leaves Abbe, who then finds herself forced to return to South Africa to sell the family farm. Events there take an implausible and eventually sentimental turn. Moments of drama, violence and self-sacrifice eventually contribute to Abbe's rediscovery of hope and generosity. Intense, unsparing, dark and often downbeat, but distinguished by an impassioned, poetic voice."Kirkus Reviews
"Each person's grief is unique and, as with an accident along the side of the road, everyone slows down to witness another's suffering, thinking, 'That could easily have been me.' Clearly, there is a market for books that provide this sense of vicarious suffering and ultimately empowering self-discovery, and this debut novel about grief and repurposing one's life after tremendous loss fits the mold. It begins with a sense of foreboding and a dark secret tied to the protagonist's family farm in South Africa (where the author was born). Abbe Deighton has since fled her homeland and now lives with her husband and young daughter in Hawaii. She chafes in her role as minister's wife and suburban mother and is unhappy without really being able to pin down why. When her daughter's accidental death tears her life apart, Abbe must return to South Africa in order to discover the truth about her own mother and to begin healing. The character development in this novel is quite engaging, but ultimately the plot is somewhat predictable. Recommended."Gwen Vredevoogd, Library Journal
Review
“A heart-wrenching tale of unthinkable loss and hard-won healing. This is a novel to savor.” ---Sara Gruen, author of Water for Elephants
“An arresting, heart-wrenching novel...a phenomenal debut.” ---The San Diego Union-Tribune
“A compelling tale of survival, reinvention, and hope, in the end, Come Sunday is less about the death of a young child as about personal redemption and resurrection.... Vivid and poignant.” ---The Boston Globe
“An intense and ambitious first novel, and an exquisitely detailed exploration of the mother-daughter bond.” ---Los Angeles Magazine
“A debut full of heartbreak and promise...Through her portraits, Morley shows us flawed flesh-and-blood characters we come to care about.” ---Christianity Today
“Morley brings a pathos palpable in its authenticity and a maturity arresting in its conviction. Firmly establishing her in the pantheon of such insightful authors as Chris Bohjalian, Sue Miller, and Anita Shreve, Morleys poignant, read-in-one-sitting tale of loss and renewal will haunt readers.” ---Booklist
Synopsis
A wonderful new storyteller unleashes a soaring debut that sweeps from the hills of Hawaii to the veldt of South Africa. Come Sunday is that joyous, special thing: a saga that captivates from the very first page, breaking our hearts while making our spirits soar. Abbe Deighton is a woman who has lost her bearings. Once a child of the African plains, she is now settled in Hawaii, married to a minister, and waging her battles in a hallway of monotony. There is the leaky roof, the chafing expectations of her husbands congregation, and the constant demands of motherhood. But in an instant, beginning with the skid of tires, Abbes battlefield is transformed when her three-year-old daughter is killed, triggering in Abbe a seismic grief that will cut a swath through the landscape of her life and her identity. What an enthralling debut this is! What a storyteller we have here! As Isla Morleys novel sweeps from the hills of Honolulu to the veldt of South Africa, we catch a hint of the spirit of Barbara Kingsolver and the mesmerizing truth of Jodi Picoult. We are reminded of how it felt, a while ago, to dive into the drama of The Thorn Birds. Come Sunday is a novel about searching for a true homeland, family bonds torn asunder, and the unearthing of decades-old secrets. It is a novel to celebrate, and Isla Morley is a writer to love.
Synopsis
WINNER OF THE JANET HEIDINGER KAFKA PRIZE FOR FICTION
FINALIST FOR THE COMMONWEALTH PRIZE
Abbe is a restless young mother living on the outskirts of Honolulu with her husband, Greg, the pastor at a small church. Their lives are suddenly riven by tragedy when their three-year-old daughter, Cleo, is struck and killed by car. As Greg turns to God and community for comfort, Abbe turns inward and reflects upon her own troubled past. Isla Morley brilliantly weaves the story of Abbes grief with a gripping tale of her tempestuous childhood in apartheid South Africa---and how Abbes father, a villainous drunk, held her family hostage for decades with his rage, until they finally began to plot their escape from him. Come Sunday is a spellbinding drama about a woman breaking free of her grief and of her past, and what it takes to revive hope when all seems lost.
About the Author
ISLA MORLEY grew up in South Africa during apartheid. During the countrys State of Emergency, she graduated from Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth with a degree in English literature. By 1994 she was one of the youngest magazine editors in South Africa, but she left career, country, and kin when she married an American and moved to the United States. For more than a decade she pursued a career in nonprofit work, focusing on the needs of women and children. Now in the Los Angeles area, she shares a home with her husband, their daughter, two cats, a dog, and a tortoise.