📖 Book Review ~ The Redemption of Isobel Farrar by Alan Robert Clark

 

Fairlight
Kindle 1 June 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book

England, 1926. Lady Isobel Farrar, an ageing widow with a colourful past, has returned home after years of living abroad. As she moves back into Halcyon Hill, her beloved country house, she finds herself dwelling on a long-buried secret. In the wake of a terrible tragedy when she was young, Isobel gave up a child for adoption, and now she can’t help but wonder what became of him.

Life has not been kind to Frank Brodie. Cruelly mistreated by his adoptive parents, he spent his young adulthood struggling to survive on the harsh streets of London, before the Great War took him away to the trenches. Now he has found safety with Arthur, an older man who loves and protects him. But something is still missing from Frank’s life.

When mother and son are finally reunited, will they be able to lay the past to rest?

📖 My Review...

For nearly forty years, Lady Isobel Farrar has suffered the loss of the child she had to give away when she was a young woman. Newly returned to England after several years abroad, Isobel, now in her sixties, feels that the time is right to find the child she lost but who has never been forgotten. Frank Brodie has always known he was adopted but never knew the name of his birth mother and with a childhood spent in miserable surroundings Frank has much to feel bitter about. 

Bringing these two rather lost people together is done in such a beautiful way that you can't help but feel an emotional attachment to both Isabel and Frank and watch carefully as they take their first tentative steps towards each other. There are some heartbreaking moments which really tug away at the heartstrings as both Isobel and Frank have their own demons to chase away but the real heart of the story lies in the thoughtful way in which the bonds of family are highlighted, and not just those which are formed by blood relatives but also by the close friendships we make along the way. 

The Redemption of Isobel Farrar is a really lovely character driven novel, which is beautifully, and sensitively, written by an author who has a real flair for storytelling.

About the Author

Alan Robert Clark was born and educated in Scotland. He briefly attended King’s College in London, before opting instead for a career as a copywriter and creative director with a number of leading London advertising agencies. He has worked as a freelance journalist and, most recently, has ghost-written and coauthored a number of biographies. His novel The Prince of Mirrors (Fairlight Books, 2018) was included in the Walter Scott Prize Academy Recommends List.

Twitter @AlanRobClark #TheRedemptionofIsobelFarrar

@FairlightBooks