THE UNEXPECTED AFTERMATH OF GRIEF — A Review of “Come Sunday”

Still adjusting to life in Hawaii, after years living—and growing up—in South Africa, Abbe Deighton greets each day as if treading water. Her job on a magazine, her mothering tasks, and the biggest of all—wife to the local minister—challenge her and sometimes lead her down the path of “what-if?” Greg Deighton is a kind man, and she partially chose him because he is calm and a direct opposite of her father—an abusive tyrant. But sometimes his calm rational approach evokes a rebellious streak in her.

Then, on a Good Friday, with Easter—a big event for the church—just around the corner, Abbe and Greg decide to go out on the town. And they leave Cleo, their three-year-old daughter, with friends.

But with a wrong turn and the skidding of tires, Cleo is killed—triggering in Abbe a “seismic grief that will cut a swath through the landscape of her life and her identity.”

Recovery from such a tragedy affects each individual differently, and while Greg turns to his church, Abbe strikes out—once months have passed and she is able to get out of bed—and a search begins. Internal probing that leads inward and backward in time, sorting through the mysteries, secrets and puzzles of her childhood in South Africa and events between her parents that she never understood.

Will Abbe find her answers? When she goes back to South Africa, will she finally come face to face with the untold truths that have plagued her for many years?

A compelling saga, Come Sunday: A Novel forces the reader to sort through his or her own history and identity to own the past in order to move on in the present.

Five stars.