Review written for ClubReading.com by Mary

This book intrigued me from the very first paragraph.

I used to think if you fell from grace it was more likely than not the result of one stupendous error, or else an unfortunate accident. I hadn’t learned that it can happen so gradually you don’t lose your stomach or hurt yourself in the landing. You don’t necessarily sense the motion. I’ve found it takes at least two and generally three things to alter the course of a life: You slip around the truth once, and then again, and one more time, and there you are, feeling, for a moment, that it was sudden, your arrival at the bottom of the heap.

Alice Goodwin and Theresa Collins were close friends who shared ideas and fun, and who watched each other’s children routinely. On an ordinary day when Alice was watching Lizzy and Audrey Collins, and looked away for just a brief time, Lizzy drowned.

Alice and Theresa each embark on their own path of grieving and guilt.

Alice is drawn to the pond where Lizzy drowned, and contemplates suicide at times. Her relationship with her husband and children deteriorates one step and one word at a time. Many in the small town they live in blame Alice, and she feels the brunt of their blame both personally and professionally. She is accused of sexually abusing a boy in her role as school nurse, and jailed. The book chronicles her descent into depression and the family’s difficulties in coping.

Because of the strength of their friendship, Theresa and Alice are able to renew their friendship and grieve together. Theresa says, “it’s awful…losing my daughter, and feeling that I’ve lost you too. I don’t feel that you’re gone exactly, but that you’re–misplaced. I’ve never felt so alone. I keep thinking, I’ve got to tell Alice–and then I realize that I can’t call you, that there is this pain in my chest, like my breast is being cut clean through.”

This book takes the reader into pain and the tough times of life. Ultimately every one of the characters in the book have been profoundly affected and changed.

It sounds like a tough book to read…but in fact it is a tough book to put down. I highly recommend it.