Review by Booklist Review
Rob and Anna meet when they are students at Cambridge, and despite differences in their backgrounds and temperaments, they get married. They are devastated when their son, Jack, conceived after two miscarriages, is diagnosed with a brain tumor at age five. Rob does what almost anyone facing a medical crisis does these days he becomes obsessed with looking for information online and soon discovers a discussion forum, Hope's Place, for parents of children with brain tumors. A seemingly successful surgery is just a reprieve, and the prospect of losing Jack puts the differences between Rob and Anna into sharp relief. Tensions come to a head when Rob takes Jack to Prague to seek a radical treatment from a doctor he learned about on Hope's Place. British first-novelist Allnutt plunges the reader into narrator Rob's experience of searing loss and the attendant denial, fear, anger, guilt, blame, and grief. The book's title refers to Rob's photography website, where he tries to stay connected to his son by posting panoramas and coded messages about places they visited together. Heartrending.--Quinn, Mary Ellen Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
This impressive debut from Allnutt doggedly recounts a young family's tragedy. Between programmer Rob Coates's relentless optimism, his auditor wife Anna's knack for order, and their son Jack's joyful demeanor, their life in London is happy and full of love. But when a tumor is found in Jack's brain, the bonds of the marriage are tested. After Jack is given a year to live, Rob becomes intrigued by an experimental treatment he learns about from an online forum. Though Anna isn't interested in pursuing it, Rob goes behind her back while she is away and takes Jack to the clinic in Prague. But the questionable treatments administered to Jack only worsen his health. As his marriage crumbles, Rob becomes determined to atone for his mistake by making sure no one else is hurt by the bogus clinic. Rob's experience as a father of a child stricken with cancer is punishing, marked by a desperate belief that a cure is just around the corner, frustration with well-meant and poorly delivered sympathy, and renewed appreciation for the smallest comfort and kindness. The resulting story is tender and raw, spun in pragmatic prose as personal as a friend's heartfelt admissions, with turns as unexpected as life itself. (Apr.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
DEBUT When a child is gravely ill, the realization of what he or she might never experience-first date, high school graduation, first child-is put into stark relief in this emotional novel of love, loss, and hope. Rob and Anna Coates and their son Jack are a happy family until their lives are divided by a single day-"before" cancer diagnosis and "after." Rob and Anna, facing the devastating possibility that Jack might die, are crippled by their anticipation of the worst. Each parent copes differently. Anna is stoic but blames herself and believes that without Jack, there would be nowhere for her love to go. Rob drowns his worry but finally trades his vodka bottle for a camera, creating photographic essays of Jack's favorite places, giving visual voice to grief and fear. In the end, Rob and Anna learn that with love, there is always hope for the future. Allnut, who began this book after he was diagnosed with colon cancer, teaches us to cherish the simple things in life and that sometimes the only way to keep going is to share your story. VERDICT Readers who enjoy highly emotional journeys will appreciate this vivid and heart-twisting debut. [See Prepub Alert, 10/18/17.]-K.L. Romo, Duncanville, TX © Copyright 2018. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A couple is torn apart by a child's cancer in Allnutt's debut.From the first chapters, readers know that something has gone seriously awry in the marriage of young upper-middle-class Brits Rob and Anna. Addled by vodka, Rob wakes up to discover that Anna and their young son, Jack, are gone. There follows an extended flashback detailing how this came about. The couple met while attending Cambridge, she in economics and he in computer science. Degreed, they soon settle down to a comfortable London life: She's an accountant; he has a lucrative contract with a startup. After two miscarriages, Anna and Rob are overjoyed at the birth of a son. As Jack grows, he bonds with stay-at-home dad Rob, whose career dilemmas, interposed at this point, do little to either advance the story or illuminate his character. Similarly, beyond the stereotypical attributes of her trade, we never learn much about Anna. At age 5, Jack is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Two specialists are consulted and surgery performed, affording provisional hope: A celebratory vacation in Crete ensues. But Jack has a relapse, and this time only palliative measures are possible. Rob consults Hope's Place, a social media forum, obsessively following "Nev," one poster whose son Josh had a similar malignancy. Josh is now in complete remission thanks to the ministrations of a Dr. Sladkovsky in Prague. Sladkovsky's clinic, though pricey, has purportedly worked miracles with "immuno-engineering." Suspecting snake oil and concerned about finances, Anna balks at this expedient. (The costs, if any, of Jack's U.K. treatment are never addressed, which U.S. readers might find disappointing.) When a family emergency calls Anna away, Rob, desperate that time is running out, spirits Jack to Prague. Sladkovsky's experimental protocols seem to be workingthen an irate Anna arrives. In its depiction of ordinary people in dire circumstances, the book opts for uplifting messages over controversy. Sympathy for Allnutt's characters is de rigueur; unfortunately, they lack the depth to command it.Undeniably well-meaning but too circumspect in its approach. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
