Book Review: The Same Sky By Amanda Eyre Ward

THE SAME SKY: A Novel

By: Amanda Eyre Ward

Published: January 20, 2015

Publisher: Ballantine Books

Fiction

Best-Selling author, Jodi Picoult has said, "This is the timeliest book you will read this year...This one's going to haunt me for a long time." I would have to agree with her. No matter what your political views of immigration and poverty are, this is a book you must read. The story it tells will leave a significant impact on your heart.

In alternating chapters we are introduced to Carla, a child living in horrible conditions with her grandmother and twin brothers in Honduras. Carla's mother is in Texas and sends money and American clothes to help care for their needs. In the next chapter we follow Alice, wife of Jake, who has just had their newly adopted baby taken away from them when the birth mom changed her mind a day later.  Jake and Alice are their 40’s and are the owners of a famous BBQ in Austin, Texas. From the outside, they live an idyllic life, except all they want is a baby and can't have one. 

Each chapter shares more details of Carla and Alice's despair and sadness.  Carla just want to be WITH her mom and Alice wants to BE a mom. After unbelievably horrible situations, Carla continues to battle and stay strong.  In weekly phone calls, she begs her mother to come home and each time her mother declines, promising to send money. At times I became so angry I wanted to scratch the mom's eyes out for the pain and heartache she was causing Carla. In one chapter, Carla and her brother are living off of a paste of flour and water and her mother sends a beautiful party dress for Carla. Carla states,

"When would I wear such a thing? 

What did my mother think my life was like? 

You could not eat a dress." 

A series of events leads Carly to finally, at just eleven years old, pack up and make the dangerous trek to America. Her story of perseverance, faith, and hope was beyond amazing.  

Alice continues to grieve the loss of the baby they thought was theirs, not realizing her husband is also grieving and losing hope in their marriage. Alice takes on being a "Big Sister" to a floundering teenager and believes that will help her fill the emptiness in her heart. But a teenager isn't a baby and her husband isn't on board with this new plan. After helping her sister through a devastating loss, Alice is able to come to grips with her life and what may or may not lie ahead. 

When Carla and Alice's story come together, you won't believe it and the emotions will pour out of you as you realize that both of them never lost faith and all their pain and suffering was worth it for this one moment. 

This story of Carla's trek to the border shares the dangerous conditions thousands are willing to put themselves and their families in just to reach their dream of living and working in America. Factories, dairy farms, construction firms, etc are constantly looking for laborers, even here in Iowa and immigrant workers seem to be the only ones willing to fill the need. After reading this story, I am looking at these families differently. Their children are in our schools and communities and I had never thought about the difficulties they left behind. Is living in America really their dream? Was it all they hoped it to be? Even if your beliefs are to send immigrants back to their homeland, you won't be able to deny the feelings Carla's story will invoke and the realization that all of us live under THE SAME SKY. Amanda Eyre Ward has told an important story and one that should be read and discussed. I think this would make an excellent choice for book clubs or classes studying sociology. It is the kind of book you won't forget. Amanda Eyre Ward is new to me, but I will definitely want to check out her other books soon. 

Amanda Eyre Ward - source

Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of five novels as well as a collection of short stories. She wrote THE SAME SKY after being introduced to a fellow mother at her child's school who runs the local shelters for unaccompanied minors. Through her, Amanda started to visit the shelters and get to know the children. After hearing the incredibly harrowing, frightening, courageous and hopeful stories of their journeys to go to their mothers in the US, Amanda felt she had to write this novel.

She lives in Austin, Texas with her family.  For more, visit her website, HERE. You can also find her on Facebook, HERE, and Twitter, HERE.

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Thanks to Random House for sending an eBook for the purpose of this review. This review is my honest opinion. I was not compensated in any way for this review. If you choose to purchase this book through the above link, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase. Thanks for supporting SincerelyStacie.com reviews.

Book Review: A Sister to Honor By Lucy Ferriss

A SISTER TO HONOR: A Novel

By: Lucy Ferriss

Published: January 6, 2015

Publisher: Berkley Trade

Fiction/Women's Fiction

Afia and her brother Shahid have come to America from Pakistan. Shahid came first to play squash in college. He then convinced his family in Pakistan that sending his sister to complete her studies and become a doctor was the best thing for their family. Shahid promised to protect her and protect their family honor. Shahid was busy with his own studies, working toward his future coaching career at Harvard, and his squash matches that he missed Afia, off at another college, living a bit more Americanized than his family would have liked. Soon a photo appears on the college webpage of Afia holding hands with an American man. Word travels back to Pakistan and their family's honor is immediately in jeopardy. How did the family find out so quickly about the photo? Shahid is expected to take care of this situation, but can he do what is expected of him? 

Understanding the culture, religion and honor code of families in Pakistan is central to this novel. Ferriss does an excellent job of displaying the American's inability to grasp this strict honor code and Shahid and Afia's need to maintain it even while here in the United States. This clash of cultures causes numerous problems not only for Afia and Shahid, but for their American friends as well. Nothing in the novel was unbelievable and sadly, I'm sure there was a lot of truth to the situations that played out in Afia and Shahid's story. 

A story like this is eye-opening for those of us who cannot comprehend that type of honor code and rules that are expected to be followed. When those rules are broken, the ripple effects through the community back home and for the family can be life-changing. Reading Afia's struggle over the decision to do what is right for her family and country and doing what she wanted to do was heartbreaking. It is something that most of us born and raised in the Midwest could never understand. I find reading and learning about other cultures fascinating. The expectations and rules for women, especially in Islamic countries, remind me to appreciate the freedoms and opportunities I have here in America.

This conversation between Coach Hayes and her husband about Shahid gives a glimpse into that honor code:

"What difference did you want him to see?

"The one between quilt and shame." 

"Would it be sinful for Afia to have a boyfriend, 

or just shameful if people knew about it?"

                                                              Page 60

I found each of the characters realistic whether they were in America or Pakistan. Shahid's relationship with his coach and mentor, Lissy Hayes and Afia's romantic relationship with Gus were well-developed and their personalities jumped off the pages. Afia’s personal struggle between remaining covered to honor her family, yet wanting to wear American clothing in order to fit in were understandable. The author even described the first tastes of American food, like Afia’s first burger and her struggle with making one for the first time.  The characters became real and allowed the reader to become invested and root for them when life became difficult.  

The beginning of the novel started slowly for me as the story began in Pakistan with names of people and places that were difficult to keep track of. The family relationships were confusing and a family tree would have helped keep everyone straight. Eventually, the important characters emerged and when the following chapters took the story to America, it became easier to follow. 

Once you reach a third of the way into the novel it will be difficult to put down. You will find yourself in shock and incredulous to what is unfolding on the pages in front of you. There were a few times I expected the story to go in one direction and then it lead me in a completely different one. This book is a page-turner all the way to the very end. Even with an ending that leaves you a little unsatisfied, you still find yourself satiated with a story full of twists and turns, love, romance, family, and forgiveness. All of these are keys to a great story and A SISTER TO HONOR is one you will be compelled to finish quickly. 

Born in St. Louis, Lucy Ferriss has lived on both coasts, in the middle, and abroad. She is the author of ten books, mostly fiction.  Her novel THE LOST DAUGHTER (Berkley 2012) was a BOMC alternate selection and a national bestseller. Many of her short fiction and essays have appeared most recently in the New York Times, Missouri Review, Shenandoah, Michigan Quarterly Review, and Georgia Review, and have received recognition from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Faulkner Society, the Fulbright Commission, and the George Bennett Fund, among others, 

She received her Ph.D. from Tufts University and currently lives with Don Moon in the Berkshires and in Connecticut, where she is Writer-in-Residence at Trinity College. She has two strong sons and abiding passions for music, politics, travel, tennis, and wilderness.  Visit Lucy at her website http://lucyferriss.com. You can also find Ferriss on Facebook, HERE and Twitter, HERE.

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Thanks to Penguin Group for sending me a copy of this novel for the purpose of this review. This review is my honest opinion. I was not compensated in way for this review. If you choose to purchase the book through the above link, I may receive a small commission without you having to pay a cent more for your purchase. Thanks for supporting SincerelyStacie.com reviews.