I read this in one sitting as I could not guess how it was going to end and I needed to know what was going to happen to these characters I had grown to love. Read this with a big box of tissues! Highly recommend.
This is the story about a family, Rob, Anna and their son Jack. One day their entire life changes when they receive heartbreaking news that will push them to their limits in every way . This was an emotional roller coaster of a read , the characters are likeable , Rob more so then Anna but Jack is really at the heart of it all.
This is a powerful and beautifully written book, which will stay with you long after you turn the last page.
How would you react to the knowledge that your only child had little chance of survival from illness? This story will touch your soul.
‘We Own The Sky’ is a remarkable story which will touch your heart. It tells us of a family torn apart after receiving some devastating news, the critical illness of a child and how Rob and Anna, as parents, are plunged into emotional turmoil. Every parent the world over will identify with Anna's despair, along with Rob's desperate need to clutch at any possible form of treatment available, whatever the price. The devastation of the characters is palpable, the reader cannot help but be moved. How people deal with loss and how they strive to carry on with their lives afterwards is at the heart of this story.
I recommend this book wholeheartedly and hope for more from this author.
Wow, this book will make you laugh cry and question all your own actions when faced with bad news, I recommend it whole heartedly.
It sounds wrong to say I loved this book as the subject matter of a child with an inoperable brain tumour is very difficult to read. First and foremost I would say this book is about love and understanding things from different perspectives. For example the sympathy Rob and Anna receive is not always welcome and it did make me consider how to react when faced with such news.
The book is heartbreaking and I found myself in tears several times but could not stop turning the pages. It is exceedingly well written - the first chapter shows us a completely different Rob to the husband and father we subsequently get to know as he frantically looks for ways to find a cure for his son Jack.
Rob tells the story of his life. How he meets and falls in love with his wonderful wife Anna. How they suffered two miscarriages and then the joy of welcoming their son Luke into the world.
The beautiful, 5-year-old Jack is diagnosed with a brain tumour and Rob and Anna have to live with the knowledge that they could lose their precious boy. Rob and Anna deal with this in different ways; Rob is determined not to give up on his son and to follow every hope for a cure, even unproven treatments and trials, whilst Anna is accepting of the situation and is focused on making Jack’s last days the best they can be. The relationship between the two parents breaks down under the strain and the different approaches they take.
Despite the hard subject, the book is full of light, redemption, love and hope.
An emotional rollercoaster but a heart-warming journey through love and loss.
No one can know what they will do when a child is diagnosed with a terminal illness. You may think you do, but until you are there you have no idea what emotions and feeling you will experience.
We own the sky is written from the perspective of the father, which for what i feel is a book aimed at women and is a fairly easy chick lit kind of book, was refreshing.
Emotions run high throughout the story and following the little family of three through the ups and downs of dealing with something no child or parents of a child should go through is heart wrenching.
The endless nights of scrolling through google to try to find some scrap of hope that may end all of the pain was so believable.
When you realise that the author wrote the book when undergoing chemo himself you realise why it is so realistic.
A beautiful portrayal of family life when tragedy hits and how you can come out the other side.
A great debut novel - I look forward to more books by Luke.
It is difficult to review this book without giving the whole plot away. A normal, happy family, going around their daily lives. Jack, the son, is young, living his life to the full. He sounds like a perfect child. However, jack becomes ill, the cracks begin to show, everything shatters. What, if anything, can be salvaged. If you are a parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, etc, this will make you count your blessings
Excellent
I can't recommend this beautifully written novel highly enough. It is a tragic yet life-affirming book and is definitely my first must read of this year.
A book you won't be able to put down and one that will stay with you long after you have finished it.
A heartbreaking story about losing someone you love to cancer. It could be morbid but it's not because it's also a story about hope and ultimately coming through the dark times. The characters are beautifully drawn. By the end of the book you feel that you've been through it all with them. Yes, a lovely book.
A truly remarkable account of love and the fragility of life. This is beyond a must read – if you are brave enough to cope with the emotional ordeal.
The powerful opening describing a man (Rob) evidently on the brink of absolute and complete despair had me hooked. What had occurred in this man’s life to leave him abandoning any sense of himself and turning to drink and loose living?
The following, heart-breaking and melancholy pages reveals the answer. Written with a most remarkable poignancy, you just know that even descriptions of the happy times in Rob’s life (meeting his future wife at Uni, Anna, staying loyal to his self-belief in his career ambition that leads him to overnight success (financial and proof of his belief), the arrival of his son after the distresses of miscarriages) that there is something bubbling away that will end such happiness.
And that ending comes in the form of his son, Jackie, who is diagnosed with a brain tumour. The world as he and Anna had known it is torn from them and their loved and very loving son.
Having read a little of the author, no wonder this most remarkable book had a reality that so defined it as an elite read. And no wonder he was so able to articulate in such a meaningful way the fragility of life yet at the same time, that even in its most raw guise, there is always hope.
Thank goodness this was a fiction – a harrowing and distressingly REAL account of the impact of love and loss would have left me feeling even more emotionally bruised than I do now.