Rothschild skillfully peels back the layers not only of Tom's grief following his family's death, but the ever-present bereavement within his marriage as he and Honor attempted to create a family to begin with. The epic scope and emotional range of Finding Grace is impressive for any novelist, let alone a debut author, and is made all the more noteworthy here in Rothschild's choice of narrator: the dead Honor ... Through Honor's omniscient understanding of Tom's behavior, readers witness a complicated family structure emerge. While this exact situation is atypical, the context gives Rothschild fertile ground for exploring the many shapes a family can take, and all that parenting asks of us as individuals and as a community ... Rothschild builds a novel that hurtles toward a desperate and inevitable conclusion without rushing past the emotions that give the book its heart. Complex and layered, Finding Grace is a stunning debut that is as tense as it is tender, perfectly executed from jarring start to a shocking, emotional finish. Asking more questions than it answers, Rothschild's work will be a darling for book club discussions, though readers will want to be sure to read with an open mind—and tissues nearby.
This poignant novel combines a tale of love, loss, and fate with a thread of increasing tension as the story builds to its inevitable outcome. Hand this one to fans of Jodi Picoult, Anna Quindlen, and the 2000 movie Return to Me.
Emotionally charged ... Enjoyment of the novel requires suspension of disbelief—Grace, a small business owner, spends stunningly little time at her shop—and there’s less tension in the looming revelation of Tom’s deceit than the author intends. Better are Honor’s tender flashbacks to their marriage and her musings about the challenges of fertility. The novel’s examination of love and family will leave readers with plenty to chew on.
The novel does little to capitalize on its initial emotional impact, falling into a sluggish plot that centers Tom—an unlikable character who makes frustratingly bad decisions at every turn. The author’s attempt to concoct a love story between Tom and Grace falls flat. Tom’s growing obsession with a woman who is Honor’s doppelgänger feels unintentionally macabre, and his constant lies and emotional manipulations—he continually hides their shared history from Grace—are disregarded in favor of a neatly wrapped ending that is undeserved ... A missed opportunity.
