Book info

• Title Abide With Me
• Author Elizabeth Strout
• Year 2006
• Genre Contemporary

Katherine is only five years old. Struck dumb with grief at her mother's death, it is down to her father, the heartbroken minister Tyler Caskey, to bring his daughter out of silence. But Tyler is barely surviving himself. Since Lauren's death he struggles to find the right words for his sermons - how can he be a leader to his congregation when he himself is lost? When Katherine's teacher calls to discuss his daughter's anti-social behaviour, it sparks a chain of events that begins to tear down Tyler's defences. The small-town rumour-mill has much to make of Katherine's odd behaviour, and even more to say about Tyler's relationship with his housekeeper. In Tyler's darkest hour, a startling discovery will test his congregation's humanity - and his own will to endure the kinds of trials that sooner or later test us all.

Thoughts

I do enjoy Elizabeth Strout’s writing, it draws you in to visit with these complex characters, spend a bit of time with them and their lives and then ultimately just leave them to it. I’m not entirely convinced by this one though - the village characters just weren’t that enticing, quite mean, and our main guy was a bit of a wet blanket (okay, a widower so with good reason, but I sort of didn’t care one way or the other what happened). Good writing but the setting didn’t grab me this time.

Rating: 3 / 5