Paul Linda: I’ve held the hands of the dying and watched guilt eat people alive more than disease ever could. That’s what this book reminded me of how pain doesn’t vanish just because time marches on.
Jake’s story broke me open. The scene where he kills the sparrow as a child I had to close the book. It’s the smallest sin that sometimes stains the deepest. Watching him carry that weight, especially as he tried to protect his sister Grace, I saw every patient I couldn’t save.
Grace’s pain that kind of trauma doesn’t just scar the body, it scars the soul. Jan Notzon wrote her like someone who understands mental illness, not as a plot device but as a haunting.
This isn’t a “feel-good” story. It’s a spiritual autopsy. And maybe that’s why I loved it. Because life doesn’t heal neatly, and neither does this book. But it tells the truth that redemption is possible, even if it limps.