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Three Gifts
If you could save the life of a loved one by trading in years of your own life, how many years would you give? How many lives could you save? Would you know when to stop?
Francis Broad has done just that and has negotiated the day of his death, now he must come to terms with the decisions he has made.
Three Gifts explores one man’s attempt to live a good life, his sense of responsibility, gratitude and what it means to love.
Francis Broad has done just that and has negotiated the day of his death, now he must come to terms with the decisions he has made.
Three Gifts explores one man’s attempt to live a good life, his sense of responsibility, gratitude and what it means to love.
256 pages, Paperback
Published March 2, 2023
3 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Mark A. Radcliffe
5 books18 followersMark A. Radcliffe is the author of three novels, Gabriel's Angel (2010) and Stranger Than Kindness (2013), both published by Bluemoose and a collection of short stories, Superpowers (2020) published by Valley Press.
His third novel, Three Gifts (2023) was published by Epoque Press
He is currently the Subject Lead for Creative Writing at West Dean College of Art and Conservation. Prior to that he worked as a nurse, a health journalist/columnist and a senior lecturer in mental health practice and nursing. He lives in Hove with his wife Kate and swims in the sea a lot. His daughter Maia does not swim in the sea a lot but is a faster swimmer than he is anyway. He's ok with that...no, really.
His third novel, Three Gifts (2023) was published by Epoque Press
He is currently the Subject Lead for Creative Writing at West Dean College of Art and Conservation. Prior to that he worked as a nurse, a health journalist/columnist and a senior lecturer in mental health practice and nursing. He lives in Hove with his wife Kate and swims in the sea a lot. His daughter Maia does not swim in the sea a lot but is a faster swimmer than he is anyway. He's ok with that...no, really.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 10, 2023
I loved the way the book explores family relationships and friendship. The tender relationship between Francis and his mother, Rose, is movingly described as is the young Francis’s feeling of bewilderment and powerlessness when his mother becomes ill. ‘This isn’t fair because there is nothing I can do, there is never anything I can do.’ A chance (or is it?) encounter offers him the opportunity to do the ‘something’ he’s been looking for – to give his mother and himself a gift beyond value: more time together. He has the same motivation many years later when a random event risks losing the person – besides his wife, Victoria – he holds most dear.
Francis’s friendship with Ben and Joy is the sort of friendship I think we’d all like to have. There’s fun and laughter, generosity and understanding. It was both wonderfully uplifting and, at certain points, intensely moving. And having Francis be a gardener with a desire to plant trees that will take years to grow to their full height but will persist after he’s gone was a clever touch.
Francis’s ‘trade’ is an act of willing self-sacrifice. But is trading years of your own life to prolong another’s actually the gift you think it is? What if it means you don’t live to see them grow up or fulfil their potential? Would they want you to have entered into such a contract if they’d known the consequence was spending less time with you? How would you approach the final days, hours, minutes of your life if you knew the precise point at which it would end?
In case you think this is sounding all rather serious and worthy, there’s also a lot of wry observation and humour in the book. For example, an arduous pregnancy is described as being like ‘a physical assault by surrealist plumbers’ and an act of sexual intimacy being like ‘two people trying to put on the same duffel coat in the dark’.
Whether you believe the ‘contract’ Francis enters into, and the events that follow, are the product of divine intervention, fate or simply coincidence, Three Gifts prompts you to think about what you would do in the same situation.
Three Gifts is a beautifully written, gentle and heartfelt story. It’s a book that will make you smile, laugh, ponder and maybe shed a tear or two. Personally, I don’t ask much more from a story.
Francis’s friendship with Ben and Joy is the sort of friendship I think we’d all like to have. There’s fun and laughter, generosity and understanding. It was both wonderfully uplifting and, at certain points, intensely moving. And having Francis be a gardener with a desire to plant trees that will take years to grow to their full height but will persist after he’s gone was a clever touch.
Francis’s ‘trade’ is an act of willing self-sacrifice. But is trading years of your own life to prolong another’s actually the gift you think it is? What if it means you don’t live to see them grow up or fulfil their potential? Would they want you to have entered into such a contract if they’d known the consequence was spending less time with you? How would you approach the final days, hours, minutes of your life if you knew the precise point at which it would end?
In case you think this is sounding all rather serious and worthy, there’s also a lot of wry observation and humour in the book. For example, an arduous pregnancy is described as being like ‘a physical assault by surrealist plumbers’ and an act of sexual intimacy being like ‘two people trying to put on the same duffel coat in the dark’.
Whether you believe the ‘contract’ Francis enters into, and the events that follow, are the product of divine intervention, fate or simply coincidence, Three Gifts prompts you to think about what you would do in the same situation.
Three Gifts is a beautifully written, gentle and heartfelt story. It’s a book that will make you smile, laugh, ponder and maybe shed a tear or two. Personally, I don’t ask much more from a story.
March 3, 2023
Beautifully written and gentle story with flashes of dark humour that made me laugh out loud.
May 14, 2023
It is not often you get truly touched by a story.
Having to bypass yourself in giving more time to your loved ones is something we all do unconsciously maybe, but this book takes that to the next level.
The draw of coming home to childhood familiarity and entwined in that draw is the sea..
Beautifully written, full of emotion and love it unlocked my spirituality and memory of childhood.
Jane Richardson
Having to bypass yourself in giving more time to your loved ones is something we all do unconsciously maybe, but this book takes that to the next level.
The draw of coming home to childhood familiarity and entwined in that draw is the sea..
Beautifully written, full of emotion and love it unlocked my spirituality and memory of childhood.
Jane Richardson
March 8, 2023
What a lovely book - would recommend this book to everyone.
March 1, 2025
Amazing exploration of someones life and the appreciation of it.
May 13, 2024
This is a real gem of a book which I stumbled across on my library app. A straightforward linear tale with some fantastic characters and writing. It’s happy and sad and really funny but it also makes you think.
March 12, 2023
A big hearted emotional novel that I just couldn't put down. Full of humour, hope and humanity. I highly recommend this book.
May 25, 2023
This book describes the love and loss a child feels for his mother and father. It shows Francis intuiting his mother’s sadness and absent father’s disinterest in him and them. Like his mother, Francis does not feel that he fits in and is mocked for wearing shoes with holes in them at school. He withstands the feeling of being on the outside which poverty, grief and fear can usher in, but he leans towards life and a very tender story about him unfolds. It shows the deep love between friends and between Francis, his wife Victoria, and their daughter Rae. At critical points in the story Francis anticipates the catastrophic loss of those he loves and bargains with his own life to save theirs. It is a very poignant story about life’s precarity and feelings which both nourish and stretch our capacity to bear them. We end up caring about these fragile, life-affirming, and witty characters. Searching existential questions are lightly interwoven in funny and brave conversations between them. At its heart it is a deeply engaging story about how we love, are loved, and can also heal.
March 20, 2023
A beautifully written book to make you both laugh and cry. But above all, one to make you reflect on the choices you make and how those choices go on to shape you. The characters are extremely well observed and inhabit a world that you don’t want to leave. Highly recommended.
September 29, 2024
Loved this book!!
March 10, 2023
Absolute gem of a novel.
Love - and what we might give up for it - lies at the heart of this profound, tender, darkly funny novel. The story also explores what it means to lead a good life, what it means to be a good person, a good son, parent - what form might gratitude take. Francis Broad is a sensitive, lonely boy raised in poverty by his loving mum Rose, a woman who, '... despite appearances and most of the superficial evidence, [Rose] believed she was one of life's winners.' Francis' father, Percy, 'moderately clever and passably handsome; [he] retained the slightly inflated confidence that those limited gifts had bestowed', did a bunk a few short years after Francis was born. The bond between Francis and Rose is fierce and when tragedy hits, Francis strikes a bargain with a mysterious swimmer he meets on the beach near their home. Three Gifts follows the course of Francis' foreshortened life, the ebb and flow of the tide of existence, exploring love in myriad forms (and sea swimming) in delicate, gorgeous prose. With poignant insights, characters to root for and a plot that moves apace, I rattled through it. A wonderful read and highly recommended.
Love - and what we might give up for it - lies at the heart of this profound, tender, darkly funny novel. The story also explores what it means to lead a good life, what it means to be a good person, a good son, parent - what form might gratitude take. Francis Broad is a sensitive, lonely boy raised in poverty by his loving mum Rose, a woman who, '... despite appearances and most of the superficial evidence, [Rose] believed she was one of life's winners.' Francis' father, Percy, 'moderately clever and passably handsome; [he] retained the slightly inflated confidence that those limited gifts had bestowed', did a bunk a few short years after Francis was born. The bond between Francis and Rose is fierce and when tragedy hits, Francis strikes a bargain with a mysterious swimmer he meets on the beach near their home. Three Gifts follows the course of Francis' foreshortened life, the ebb and flow of the tide of existence, exploring love in myriad forms (and sea swimming) in delicate, gorgeous prose. With poignant insights, characters to root for and a plot that moves apace, I rattled through it. A wonderful read and highly recommended.
May 12, 2023
I was immediately drawn to this novel by the beautiful artwork of the cover. It hints at the complexity of what, on the surface, seems like an ordinary life - unremarkable and un remarked - but is as beautiful and deep as the sea.
I read this as a love letter to the women and friends who populate Francis’ world and a raw exploration of grief. The whole is bound by the rhythm of open water swimming in the sea and the revelations and resolutions that can happen when you give your body to the water.
It’s a compelling read and a book that I’ll probably revisit - the themes are universal and dealt with here with a deft touch; with humour and humanity. Safe to say I’m recommending it :)
I read this as a love letter to the women and friends who populate Francis’ world and a raw exploration of grief. The whole is bound by the rhythm of open water swimming in the sea and the revelations and resolutions that can happen when you give your body to the water.
It’s a compelling read and a book that I’ll probably revisit - the themes are universal and dealt with here with a deft touch; with humour and humanity. Safe to say I’m recommending it :)
April 24, 2024
2.5 stars, didn’t dislike and found it semi enjoyable but also didn’t really connect with the characters or get much from it - cause it felt a little predictable perhaps?
really got into the concept of someone negotiating years of their life away for someone else but i just wish it went down a different route rather than into a kinda life story maybe, the first chapter really gripped me but slowly lost my attention after that - maybe i just was not in the mood for a emotional book though, so i can see how people would really like this!
really got into the concept of someone negotiating years of their life away for someone else but i just wish it went down a different route rather than into a kinda life story maybe, the first chapter really gripped me but slowly lost my attention after that - maybe i just was not in the mood for a emotional book though, so i can see how people would really like this!
March 11, 2023
Great new book highly recommend. Emotional and thought provoking story following Francis through the many trials and tribulations of his life. His way of dealing with these is at times funny and emotional but always fascinating. Lovely writing style which if you like will lead you to read his previous novels.
October 9, 2024
A moving, thought-provoking book. Francis is a compelling protagonist, who made me empathise with his plight but also question his choices. What would I do if I were in his shoes and could save someone I loved by trading years from my life? Ethics, familial bonds, the fickleness of fate, and a hint of the supernatural meet in this profound novel.
March 10, 2023
What a beautiful book, made me laugh, made me cry, made me think about what is important and why we make the choices we make in life. Anyone who loves intelligent fiction should read this, and his other books.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews