SPACE (EMILY SUE HARVEY)

Story Description: 

In Space, Emily Sue delivers us a deeply moving story of a family on the brink. Dan and Deede Stowe have worked for years, planning and saving for their idyllic retirement years. Just when they finally are about to realize their dream, their adult, recovering drug-addict daughter, Faith, moves back in with them and everything changes. Their “”miracle child”, complete with druggie baggage, upsets the tranquil balance of the Stowe’s existence.  Private romantic moments evaporate. Faith’s endless needs intrude hour by hour, devouring both their finances, their emotions, and most crucially, their space. In turn, Faith finds herself bereft of everything she cherished most, her health, her marriage, her child, her family, her reputation and, most of all, a space to call her own.

Amid chaotic challenges, all three battle to find peace with each other, a harmony that doggedly eludes them. For the sake of family solidarity, each is forced to sacrifice elemental components of self, until desperation turns them one against the other. Will love be enough to turn the tide? Is it strong enough to warm again hearts grown cold?
Space is a vivid, candid, and life-affirming story from a masterful storyteller of the heart. 

My Review: 

Dan and Deede Stowe are a match made in Heaven.  They love each other immensely and are looking forward to retiring and spending all their time together.  However, those plans are derailed once their drug-addicted, divorced daughter, Faith, moves back in and changes their entire family dynamics, the course of all their lives, and most importantly, impedes on their space.  She begins the long arduous journey of destroying each of their psyches and relationships and forces Dan and Deede to sacrifice their life-savings to pay for drug rehabs, court costs due to issues with police, and hefty lawyer fees.   

This is truly a well-written book.  I was so sucked in to the story that I kept forgetting that it was “fiction”.  The story is so well penned and I actually know a couple of people who went through an almost exact situation with their own children.  I was really expecting to find out at the end of the book that Ms. Harvey had tricked us into believing it was fiction only to find out it was non-fiction but that wasn’t the case.  This was a solid read and included extended family members and their faith in God to cope with Faith’s tragic life.  This is one of those books that I would read again and will highly recommend to all my friends.