The Cookbook of Common Prayer

This was a very unusual book with a heartbreaking theme of a teenage death. It’s written by four interlocking members of the family. Gabe and Gill the parents, Teddy their eleven year old son and Sylvia who has been in hospital for three years with severe anorexia. The first half developed extremely well, you could empathise with all the emotions the family suffered and their belief that Dougies death should be kept secret from the very fragile Sylvie. Teddies devotion to PapaB, his grandfather with dementia, was wonderful to read about. However I did find some of Teddies storyline a bit tedious in the later chapters, there was too much reminiscing and detail, I’m really sad to say, so I skimmed quite a lot of these pages. Rosa was a strange character who didn’t seem to be very upset at Dougies death even though they were in a relationship and she was the last person to see him alive . I also thought it very strange that Murphy didn’t rescue both of them, couldn’t Dougie have continued to hold Rosas hand as she was led out of the cave network. Why take one when you could easily have taken two, Dougie could have just followed . Perhaps someone could explain this to me, it puzzled me all through the book. Having made a few criticisms I did enjoy reading the book, the recipes were.a brilliant addition created by Gill, a cookery writer, during her darkest days.

When Gill and Gabe's eldest son drowns overseas, they decide they must hide the truth from their desperately unwell teenaged daughter. But as Gill begins to send letters from her dead son to his sister, the increasingly elaborate lie threatens to prove more dangerous than the truth.

This book has everything you need for a mystery, thriller, and an added extra of a psychological twist. The storyline and plot are one I have never heard of or even thought of so very well done to the author! The narrative is told through alternative perspectives that switch. The story gives off a hopeful, family, communicative feeling with a touch of unfortunate grief. As a nurse who has worked in emergency care, palliative care, and now intensive care, the story line resonated well with me.

I've spent a couple of days immersed in his book and needing to read just one more page...

When Gabe and Gill lose their eldest son, life becomes even more complicated than ever, as they try to conceal his death from their daughter Sylvie. The author gives us the story from a number of different perspectives and
at first, I was worried that having so many viewpoints would be confusing. However, as I read on, I realised that it was exactly how this story needed to be told.

The story of middle daughter, Sylvie and her difficult journey with anorexia is at the heart of the story. This is told so well from both sides- herself and her family and how helpless they feel. It soon becomes clear that the story belongs to everyone- Dougie and his girlfriend Rosa, Gabe and Gill, Papabee and Teddy. I think Teddy's account of things was my favourite. The author inhabits the 11 year old persona so well.

The thread of the recipe book peppered throughout was cleverly done especially given the juxtaposition of Gill's recipes with Sylvie's difficult relationship with food.

The climactic ending was unexpected and Francesca Haig brought everything together so well. I very much look forward to reading more by this author.

Just absolutely incredible, beautiful writing. Every page is peppered throughout with beautiful phrases, and the characters feel thoroughly, tangibly human. Such an astonishing evocation of grief is available in just about every passage that I read the whole thing with a lump in my throat.

This deserves to make it big.

This book is a beautifully written and is a very emotive book. Written from the different perspectives of the members of the family The Cookbook of Common Prayer is heartbreaking. We get the story of the forgotten on son with his papa with dementia, the anorexic daughter and the parents dealing with the death of their eldest son. I could only read this a few chapters at a time because it made me feel so emotional so definitely not a light read.