In these dark days of 2020 where many of us sit confined to our homes watching the Covid 19 news on our TV screens every night you need something in your life to help counter the fear, the depression, the isolation.
Meet Dawn Elizabeth Brightside. She has been running from her past for the last twenty two years. When she is offered a place at St Jude’s Hostel for the Homeless in Dover she has finally found a place where she can be herself and make sure that everyone else there is looked after as well.
Grace runs St Jude’s and has been battling with budget cuts for the last few years. The thought of having to reduce her services or even to close it completely just breaks her heart. This is a beautiful story that doesn’t shy away from some pretty dark subjects including mental illness, homelessness, post natal depression, addiction and alcoholism. Even so this is a book that exudes warm and joy and indeed extraordinary hope. It truly is a tonic for the soul.
Dawn has nothing and no-one, but a ready smile and a willingness to help see her winning friends and becoming a central figure at St Jude’s. Told with such compassion and empathy it feels like Jessica Ryn has real experience of this emotive and often controversial subject. Shut yourself off from the world outside, be prepared to laugh and to cry and then marvel at the triumph of love and hope over an impossible darkness.
Supplied by HQ and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
UK Publication Date: May 28 2020. 400 pages.
#TheExtraordinaryHopeofDawnBrightside #NetGalley
Categories: 5 Stars Book Review
angelnet69
Prolific reader, enthusiastic theatre and movie-goer and ex-Olivier Awards judge who spent twenty years working in the music industry in London. Sharing my house with a gorgeous cockapoo called Harry who has taken over completely.
I love sharing my favourite books with friends - nearly always spoiler-free as I hate reading a synopsis of the whole book in other reviews.
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