Gratitude

Mel, a 44-year-old New York divorcee, takes care of her stepdaughter Jess's challenging four-year-old son, Billy, two afternoons a week. She prays for her own fertility while waiting for the return of charismatic Royce, who has been filming in Hollywood. But Royce is cursed, and Mel reaches out to her friend, Anto, who is gay but wants to be a parent. Will surrogacy be the answer? Will Mel be locked into taking on more responsibility for Billy as Jess spirals into depression? Or will she make a life with Hassan, a refugee suffering from PTSD and raising his disabled eight-year-old son alone? Gratitude is a deeply empathic, humane debut that asks how we live now and make meaning in lives that rarely work to plan.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 276 pages
Publication date: 03 June 2024
Publisher: Cinnamon Press

At 44, New York divorcee Mel is not ready to give up on God or the possibility of motherhood. Between running an actors agency in Hammersmith and rehearsing her role in a rock musical, she agrees to take care of her stepdaughter Jess's challenging four-year-old son, Billy, two afternoons a week. Writing: Playing Billy's Mom on a strip of paper to place in her Gratitude jar, she prays that her good deed will have a pay off: her own fertility. Meanwhile, prepped with hormone tablets and injection at the ready, she awaits the return of charismatic Royce, who has been filming in Hollywood. But all is not well with Royce. A strange incident on Venice Beach after dark has shifted his world. Can he really be cursed? Desperate, Mel reaches out to her friend Anto. He's gay but wants to be a parent. Thwarted again, will surrogacy be the answer? Will Mel be locked into taking on more responsibility for Billy as Jess spirals into depression following the loss of her father? Or can Mel make a life with the new man in her life, refugee Hassan, suffering from PTSD and raising his disabled eight-year-old son alone? Or will life take an unexpected turn? As Mel's faith moves towards Buddhism under Anto's influence and a friend steps in to help with a problem deeper than infertility that is gripping her life, will she be able to answer the call when an unlooked-for opportunity presents itself? A deeply empathic, humane debut, Gratitude asks how we live now and how we make meaning in lives that rarely work to plan.

Dimension: 198 x 130 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781788648936