Book review: The Two Week Wait

By
By Sarah Rayner
Published by Picador

I read One Moment, One Morning, the novel that brought Sarah Rayner into the spotlight, over two years ago and I still praise and recommend it at any given occasion. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity of reading an early copy of her latest novel, The Two Week Wait.

Like its predecessor, The Two Week Wait focuses on important – and often controversial – issues: motherhood and infertility. And – now as before – Sarah Rayner excels at dealing with such personal matters with compassion and understanding.

In Yorkshire, Cath and Rich are married and want to build a family. After two years spent fighting cancer, Cath is now healthy but, as a consequence of the illness, she can’t have children. In Brighton, Lou and Adam are both gay, single and wanting a child.

For different reasons, time is running out for these four adults to fulfil their desire and create a new life. Thanks to the advances in fertility treatments, however, they are in a position to help each other through the egg-sharing plan offered by a London clinic.

That is how, without even meeting in person (which, by the way, was a great choice to avoid getting over-sentimental), the two couples of would-be parents set out on a parallel journey of hope and faith, which culminates in the two week wait of the title. This is the decisive period that follows the embryo transfer and that will confirm whether a woman is pregnant or not.

Regardless of how things turn out for Cath, Rich, Lou and Adam – I’m not going to spoil the surprise! – The Two Week Wait is a well-researched novel that has a lot to teach. And I’m not only referring to the concepts of IVF, egg sharing etc. Through characters such as Cath’s sister-in-law and Lou’s mother and sister, Sarah Rayner tackles the scepticism and criticism that are far from being uncommon where fertility treatments are concerned.

If you’ve read One Moment, One Morning, this novel will feel like meeting old friends. If you haven’t, you have two whole novels to discover and enjoy. In both cases, you’re in for a treat!

Comments

  1. Sarah Rayner5 February 2012 at 11:39

    Sylvie, this is such a lovely review, I'm uploading it onto my website www.thecreativepumpkin.com right away. I'm so happy you liked The Two Week Wait too, as I know how much you loved One Moment, One Morning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. LindyLouMac12 February 2012 at 17:51

    I am meant to be clearing my TBR lists this year and not adding to them, but after reading this lovely review how can I not add these titles to the wishlist!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Booknet: a new platform for authors and readers

By
Image
‘Ooooh, what is Booknet ?’ I hear you ask… Booknet is a popular literary social media network, self-publishing platform, and Bookscription eBook sales model, all of which is being introduced to the UK following rapid growth in Latin America and Eastern Europe since 2015. How does it work? Booknet is both a successful literary self-publishing platform and a social network, founded by Ukrainian entrepreneurs in 2015. Booknet has gained significant traction in countries such as Ukraine, Russia (the Russian division was sold in the spring of 2022 because of the war between Ukraine and Russia), as well as Latin America. The company is now actively investing resources into the development of its English-language version. Authors can either publish their books with free access by readers, or sell them after obtaining commercial status through the platform. Booknet provides free advertising for eBooks sold by their authors on the platform. Booknet’s distinctive features (apart from being a pop...
Read more

Book review: She’s Never Coming Back

By
Image
By Hans Koppel Translated by Kari Dickson Published by Sphere It is safe to say that my choice of reading material is not usually truculent. That’s why I surprised myself when I decided to read a novel whose front cover prominently displays a quote describing it as a ‘terrifying crime novel’. I started to read expecting the worse and - it being impossible to put the book down - a few hours later I was trying to understand what had hit me. Let’s be clear: I loved this book and I’m grateful to Sphere for publishing this Swedish novel by author Karl Petter Lidbeck who, being a children’s literature author, decided to have it published under the pen name of Hans Koppel. I can see why he doesn’t want to have the two genres mixing on the bookshelves! The plot is simple enough: one day after work, Ylva does not return home. When she hasn’t returned 24 hours later, her husband Mike starts to worry and calls the police. Ylva seems to have disappeared without a trace and, month after month, Mike...
Read more

“Italy in books” - reading challenge 2011

By
Image
Why this challenge? This year I’ve decided to host a reading challenge because I think that they are a brilliant idea. They help to make reading a more collective experience and are a great way to find out more about any particular author / genre / topic and get to know about books you might never have come across. I chose this topic because - as an Italian who has been living abroad for many years now - I feel the need to learn more about my home country and I’m curious to see the difference between the way it is portrayed by native Italians and others. The details of the challenge The challenge will run from January, 1st 2011 to December, 31st 2011 . The aim of the challenge is to read at least 12 books that are set in Italy. Whether written by Italian authors or not, it doesn’t matter. They don’t have to be set exclusively in Italy but this country needs to play a significant role in the book. The challenge can include non-fiction books about Italy. You can also review Italian lea...
Read more