Book review: A Mother's Love by Santa Montefiore

As Mother's Day draws near, here is the perfect gift'¦ a powerful and poignant celebration of the special bond between a mother and her child.
A Mothers Love bySanta MontefioreA Mothers Love bySanta Montefiore
A Mothers Love bySanta Montefiore

One of the nation’s favourite storytellers, Santa Montefiore pays tribute to the unique magic of a mother’s love in a beautiful novella about terrible loss, learning to accept and discovering that love never dies.

Packed full of maternal love, exquisite emotions and shared understanding, Montefiore’s enchanting story will break hearts but also uplift the soul. The book also includes an excerpt from the author’s most recent novel, Songs of Love and War.

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Sixteen months ago Robert and Celeste lost their beloved eight-year-old son Jack to leukaemia. Robert will never get over the tragic loss but has learned to live with it.

Celeste, however, cannot live with her grief. It flows around her like ‘a terrible flood of pain,’ hemming her in and forcing Robert out. He feels like he has lost his wife as well as his son.

When Celeste learns that Robert’s nephew Bruno, also aged eight, is coming to stay with them after returning from living in Australia, she fears she cannot bear to have another child in the house when her emotions are still so raw.

But when Bruno arrives, Celeste makes him feel welcome and loved even though her heart is breaking, and slowly she starts to feel more peaceful and to emerge from the ‘dark comfort’ of her unhappiness.

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Celeste finally feels strong enough to enter the little summerhouse at the end of her garden where the quilt she was making her son lies unfinished, her love and grief stitched into each square of the material.

Having another child in the house brings back all her memories, but stirs up the love that has lain dormant in her. And when Bruno starts to show some insight into what Jack was like, Celeste dares to dream there might be something more than meets the eye in his special connection to her son.

Can love triumph over loss, and hope flourish once again?

A tribute to the selfless love of a mother for her child and the power of love to endure even in the most difficult of times, this is a story to comfort, move and inspire.

(Simon & Schuster, hardback, £10)

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