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Redemption
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2006
About the author
Kay Langdale
16 books20 followersKay Langdale was born in Coventry, England.
From a young age she loved to read and to write.
She attended Bedford College, London University, graduating with a first class degree in English Literature and then went to Oxford University where she completed a doctorate on Samuel Beckett’s prose fiction. She briefly taught twentieth century literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford before beginning work as an account handler and copywriter at a brand consultancy.
She is married to a South African entrepreneur, with whom she has four children who are now mostly grown. Kay divides her time between their homes in Oxfordshire and Devon.
Now writing her eighth novel, Kay also works as an editor for the charity The Children’s Radio Foundation which trains young broadcasters in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
When not writing Kay enjoys running, ballet barre, yoga, swimming, coastal walking, learning Italian, cooking and reading. Always reading.
From a young age she loved to read and to write.
She attended Bedford College, London University, graduating with a first class degree in English Literature and then went to Oxford University where she completed a doctorate on Samuel Beckett’s prose fiction. She briefly taught twentieth century literature at St Edmund Hall, Oxford before beginning work as an account handler and copywriter at a brand consultancy.
She is married to a South African entrepreneur, with whom she has four children who are now mostly grown. Kay divides her time between their homes in Oxfordshire and Devon.
Now writing her eighth novel, Kay also works as an editor for the charity The Children’s Radio Foundation which trains young broadcasters in six countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
When not writing Kay enjoys running, ballet barre, yoga, swimming, coastal walking, learning Italian, cooking and reading. Always reading.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
December 9, 2025
I loved this book! Each of the women were so well written and I could easily relate to or understand what they were thinking and feeling.
August 7, 2008
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6...
Six women with interconnected relationships relate their experiences of love and marriage. Each chapter is devoted to one of them and then the final chapter neatly sorts the links into a happy ending.
The women each relate their stories, first is Sarah who has doubts about her love for her husband Michael. Her confusion is exacerbated by realising she has feelings for his best friend Harry. In chapter two we hear from Harry’s wife Kate who is concerned that she and her husband have grown apart. She fears he does not love her anymore and is having an affair. Next we are introduced to Isobel who was aware that something was troubling her daughter Kate. Despite a good relationship with her she has always been reserved. Isobel’s husband Robert has been dead for nearly twenty years and Kate has always thought her parents marriage was perfect. In fact in its final years it had been ‘a tissue of pretence’ and it is only now that Isobel comes to terms with this and feels able to carry out the gesture she makes to Roberts mistress. Martha was Robert’s mistress for the last four years of his life. Already fifty-eight and married with grown up sons herself. Robert was the “huge, explosive, fire-cracking, world-spinning point of it all.” Martha now lives in an Old Peoples home and it is the night nurse Shelia that provides the next link in the story. Shelia is married to Henry, a marriage she entered as an innocent. Not knowing what she should expect within her marriage she found it very difficult to discuss such things with her doctor. Her secret remains one within the marriage and at the doctor’s suggestion Shelia and Henry are delighted to adopt a son Michael.
Judith is their son’s birth mother and provides the final link in the chain. After many years of silence in a childless marriage she confesses her secret to her husband Tom. Telling him that not only that she had a son, but that she has also set in motion the process of tracking him down via the adoption services.
The final chapter brings the story to its conclusion with all the women appearing to have received absolution and happily come to terms with their secrets. The ending was a little sickly sweet for me.
I read this book as part of a challenge to myself along with other friends to read all the books published by Transita. This one was not particularly dynamic or stimulating but a pleasant read for a sunny summer’s afternoon.
Note, reading other reviews, I seem to be at odds with the majority. I am now wondering why it did not affect me in the same way.
Six women with interconnected relationships relate their experiences of love and marriage. Each chapter is devoted to one of them and then the final chapter neatly sorts the links into a happy ending.
The women each relate their stories, first is Sarah who has doubts about her love for her husband Michael. Her confusion is exacerbated by realising she has feelings for his best friend Harry. In chapter two we hear from Harry’s wife Kate who is concerned that she and her husband have grown apart. She fears he does not love her anymore and is having an affair. Next we are introduced to Isobel who was aware that something was troubling her daughter Kate. Despite a good relationship with her she has always been reserved. Isobel’s husband Robert has been dead for nearly twenty years and Kate has always thought her parents marriage was perfect. In fact in its final years it had been ‘a tissue of pretence’ and it is only now that Isobel comes to terms with this and feels able to carry out the gesture she makes to Roberts mistress. Martha was Robert’s mistress for the last four years of his life. Already fifty-eight and married with grown up sons herself. Robert was the “huge, explosive, fire-cracking, world-spinning point of it all.” Martha now lives in an Old Peoples home and it is the night nurse Shelia that provides the next link in the story. Shelia is married to Henry, a marriage she entered as an innocent. Not knowing what she should expect within her marriage she found it very difficult to discuss such things with her doctor. Her secret remains one within the marriage and at the doctor’s suggestion Shelia and Henry are delighted to adopt a son Michael.
Judith is their son’s birth mother and provides the final link in the chain. After many years of silence in a childless marriage she confesses her secret to her husband Tom. Telling him that not only that she had a son, but that she has also set in motion the process of tracking him down via the adoption services.
The final chapter brings the story to its conclusion with all the women appearing to have received absolution and happily come to terms with their secrets. The ending was a little sickly sweet for me.
I read this book as part of a challenge to myself along with other friends to read all the books published by Transita. This one was not particularly dynamic or stimulating but a pleasant read for a sunny summer’s afternoon.
Note, reading other reviews, I seem to be at odds with the majority. I am now wondering why it did not affect me in the same way.
September 16, 2007
10/19/07
TITLE/AUTHOR: REDEMPTION by Kay Langdale
RATING: 5/A
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Women's Fiction (transita)/2006/280 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: stand-alone
TIME/PLACE: Present/UK
CHARACTERS: Various
FIRST LINES: Sarah wondered, as she hung up the tea-towel, if her hands carried the faintest trace of the washing up gloves. Not how she would like to be perceived, she thought, forty-something & w/ an odour of damp rubber clinging to her fingertips.
COMMENTS: rec'd 09/26 bookcrossing bookring. Excellent, love these transita books. Each chapter gives us a different view of love/relationships. Sarah a young, working mother who is tempted by someone other than her husband. Kate, who thinks her husband is lost to her. Isobel, who accepted her husband's infidelity later in life. Martha who has her major love affair late in life even tho' she is married. Sheila who has accepted her "lavender" chaste marriage. And Judith who hides a teenage pregnancy from her husband. The final chapter connects all these characters and each finds their own redemption in their relationships. Very well done.
TITLE/AUTHOR: REDEMPTION by Kay Langdale
RATING: 5/A
GENRE/PUB DATE/# OF PGS: Women's Fiction (transita)/2006/280 pgs
SERIES/STAND ALONE: stand-alone
TIME/PLACE: Present/UK
CHARACTERS: Various
FIRST LINES: Sarah wondered, as she hung up the tea-towel, if her hands carried the faintest trace of the washing up gloves. Not how she would like to be perceived, she thought, forty-something & w/ an odour of damp rubber clinging to her fingertips.
COMMENTS: rec'd 09/26 bookcrossing bookring. Excellent, love these transita books. Each chapter gives us a different view of love/relationships. Sarah a young, working mother who is tempted by someone other than her husband. Kate, who thinks her husband is lost to her. Isobel, who accepted her husband's infidelity later in life. Martha who has her major love affair late in life even tho' she is married. Sheila who has accepted her "lavender" chaste marriage. And Judith who hides a teenage pregnancy from her husband. The final chapter connects all these characters and each finds their own redemption in their relationships. Very well done.
May 5, 2016
Wasn't a fan of this one, it felt more like a series of facts than a story. I didn't enjoy the style very much at all. The women themselves were inspirational (for the most part) but I would have preferred their stories to be intertwined a little more, and for smaller chapters.
July 1, 2012
Linked stories about women and their relationships. very depressing in some ways but I really like the way she writes and I feel empathy for the characters.
June 2, 2014
I found the differences in the ways people managed their lives and relationships fascinating.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews