jbronderbookreviews

The Language of Dying by Sara Pinborough

A woman sits beside her father’s bedside as the night ticks away the final hours of his life. As she watches over her father, she relives the past week and the events that brought the family together . . . and she recalls all the weeks before that served to pull it apart.

There has never been anything normal about the lives raised in this house. It seems to her that sometimes her family is so colourful that the brightness hurts, and as they all join together in this time of impending loss she examines how they came to be the way they are and how it came to just be her, the drifter, that her father came home to die with.

But, the middle of five children, the woman has her own secrets . . . particularly the draw that pulled her back to the house when her own life looked set to crumble. And sitting through her lonely vigil, she remembers the thing she saw out in the fields all those years ago . . . the thing that they found her screaming for outside in the mud. As she peers through the familiar glass, she can’t help but hope and wonder if it will come again.

Because it’s one of those night, isn’t it dad? A special terrible night. A full night. And that’s always when it comes. If it comes at all.

My Review

5 stars

This story is about a man that raised his five children after his wife left them. He is now dying from cancer. Of the five sibling, the middle sister is the narrator. She is the one that they accused of being the dreamer. Things have not always been easy for her and as she waits with her father she relates the different events in her life. Then her brothers and sister come to say their goodbyes without really saying goodbye. But after the pleasantries the old alliances are shown and they eventually leave the middle daughter alone to face the upcoming death of their father.

Losing someone close is always hard and you go through so many emotions from happiness to love to anger to grief. This book has the whole range of emotions as the woman waits for her father’s death. It’s so hard to watch when her siblings are there. They clearly don’t want to have anything to do with the passing of their father and they clearly have their own family alliances that they fall back into. I felt for the woman. She has this heavy burden dumped on her as they leave.

This is a heartbreaking story and at times very hard to read. But it is well written and moving. This is a quick read but one that you will think of for a long time.

To purchase The Language of Dying make sure to visit Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Goodreads and Sara Pinborough’s website.

I received The Language of Dying for free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.