How To Be Brave

Goodreads Description

All the stories died that morning … until we found the one we’d always known. When nine-year-old Rose is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, Natalie must use her imagination to keep her daughter alive. They begin dreaming about and seeing a man in a brown suit who feels hauntingly familiar, a man who has something for them. Through the magic of storytelling, Natalie and Rose are transported to the Atlantic Ocean in 1943, to a lifeboat, where an ancestor survived for fifty days before being rescued.

Poignant, beautifully written and tenderly told, How To Be Brave weaves together the contemporary story of a mother battling to save her child’s life with an extraordinary true account of bravery and a fight for survival in the Second World War. A simply unforgettable debut that celebrates the power of words, the redemptive energy of a mother’s love … and what it really means to be brave.

My Review

This book is part memoir, part autobiography and part fiction novel. It's a beautifully crafted tale in which the author tells the story of her grandfather, Colin, who survived the sinking of his battleship and survived on a raft out at sea, and the story of her daughter's diabetes diagnosis, and the effect it had on their lives and their relationship.

After finishing Sweetpea (by C.J Skuse) a few days ago, which I absolutely loved and which rocketed into my top 3 reads of the year, I was really worried about what to read next. I felt that nothing would compare and that any thriller that I read next would fall flat in comparison. The only way to deal with that potential problem, was by reading something totally and completely different, something that was definitely not a thriller. So off I went to scan my bookshelf and my eyes landed on this book, which I'd actually been meaning to read for some time. It was the perfect read to get me over my book hangover.

I felt that the author had a very natural and easy writing style. The pages flew by without any effort on my side, and the story unfolded so effortlessly. The bravery shown by Colin, but also by the author and her daughter, was quite clear. In Colin's case, I know that it's human instinct to fight to survive, but I couldn't help wondering if I would ever have been able to endure the hardships that he endured. And as for young Rose, and how difficult it must be to have to prick your finger four times a day, draw blood, inject yourself, and all at the tender age of 9, her bravery, and that of her mother was also clear.

This is a lovely and uplifting story that I'm sure most Bookworm's will enjoy. It was a book that I loved, and it was totally outside of the genres that I normally enjoy. Need I say more.

My Rating: * * * *

Publication Date: July 2015

Genre: Memoir, Autobiography and Fiction

Format: Paperback

Source: My own purchased copy. (Note: this book is published by Orenda Books, and as such is not available in stores in SA. You can, however, order it online, which is where I bought mine. Try www.loot.co.za)