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These chapters could so easily have been either mawkishly sentimental or too graphic but I thought Wroe skillfully avoided both traps. Yes there are descriptions of the practices followed by an embalmer, but they are not gratuitously detailed. Nor are there explicit details of the injuries suffered by the children. What we do get is a deep sense of the sensitivity, almost reverence, shown with the arrival of each small frame. Well, I had good advice from both my agent and editor. There was an 18-month lag for me from when I signed, to when the book came out. So, the advice was to get on with the next one. Because if it comes out and it's hugely successful, that can make you think, “oh my gosh, I'll never do that again!” If it doesn't go so well, you'll think “Well, I can't do it.” So I've got a shaggy first version of the next one but I've got to do a lot of tidying up in the next few months before I hand it over!’ I enjoyed the parts of this book that are set in Cambridge as much as I enjoyed the parts based around the mining disaster in Aberfan. When one of the mothers speaks of hearing Myfanwy sung from the mountains I real ugly cried but also felt so full of hope and love for this books incredible characters. Jo allowed us a glimpse into the world of embalmers and funeral homes showed us the way in which these unseen heroes work so hard to ease the grief of those who have lost somebody - something I had never really considered before. Since then, I have been writing educational books and learning how to write novels, really,” she says. “I was also teaching creative writing and I was helping with the literary festival in Cambridge. That experience was really good because I got to grips with the hugeness of the task of writing a novel. Along the way, like most novelists, there were lots of rejections and ‘really good but not good enoughs’. Eventually, I was good enough, which was great.” How then, after four years as a lauded Cambridge chorister, did his career path change so radically? How could he be estranged from his beloved mother and not have sung a single note in five years?
Her book is steeped in a historical event: in the mid-60s, the Welsh Village of Aberfan suffered a landslide at a coal mine, killing 116 children and 28 adults. The village needed embalmers and William, with his newly minted embalmers designation, answers the call. What he witnesses there is so horrendous that he resolves never to have children of his own. It almost, but not quite, causes him to leave the love of his life, Gloria as well. I found the tension between the protagonist's actions and their moral implications to be captivating.
His memories swirl and gather, intertwine, and draw him to face a possible future upon which he believes only he can decide, but as he peers over the edge, it becomes clear that the ‘concrete feet’ of Aberfan are not the strongest grounding forces in his life. freshly graduated … with top marks for every piece of practical and written work, William looks at what’s left of the little girl who he’s just found out is called Valerie, and realises none of it counts for anything, not a thing, unless here and now he can do his job and prepare this child’s broken body for her parents, who are right now standing on the wet pavement behind.
William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job as an embalmer, and it will be one he never forgets. Death was also once a part of everyday life for Browning Wroe herself — her father was superintendent of a Birmingham city council crematorium and her family lived in a house on the grounds. She and her sister would often strap on their skates and take a spin in the cavernous crematorium. It was a solitary childhood which she says shaped the person and writer she became. A Terrible Kindness is ultimately a tale of humanity, showing how love and compassion endures even in the most difficult of situations. A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe: Footnotes William decides he must act, so he stands and volunteers to attend. It will be his first job, and will be – although he’s yet to know it – a choice that threatens to sacrifice his own happiness. His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to bury. But compassion can have surprising consequences, because – as William discovers – giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves. Selection panel reviewThe book was selected with the help of a panel of library staff from across the UK. Our readers loved A Terrible Kindness – here are some of their comments: I would also recommend this recording of Allegri’s Miserere which is crucial to the plot of the book as well as its themes – listen in particular to the tenor solo at for example 1:30 The setting of A Terrible Kindness added an eerie atmosphere to the story that heightened its impact. Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with the opportunity to read an ARC of this very special book.
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