Review:

Leaving Yesterday

Kathryn Cushman’s third novel addresses one of the ‘What if?’ nightmares that every mother has and asks the question ‘How far would I go to protect my child?’

Alisa’s son Kurt freefalls into a life of drug addiction and petty crime after his elder brother is killed in a brawl, and when a drug dealer is murdered the finger of the law inevitably points at Kurt. But in the meantime Kurt has turned his life around; worked through rehab and resumed contact with his family. So when damning evidence surfaces in the family home, Alisa has a tough choice to consider.

While some key issues are bravely addressed by the author – the nature of grace; the agony of keeping up ‘a brave Christian face’– the inevitable US cultural differences which permeate the story were oddly distracting and the rather under-developed characters limited my empathy for their plight.

HIGH: The easy readability – think Desperate Housewives diluted!

LOW: Clichéd characters written into a shallow community.

Published by: Bethany House