Book Reviews and More: Someday

Wednesday, 7 September 2016

Someday - Corinna Turner

Someday
Yesterday and Tomorrow Book 1
Corinna Turner
Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama (Foreword)
Ann Widdecombe (Introduction)
UnSeen Books an Imprint of
Zephyr Publishing, UK
Chesterton Press, US Edition
UK Edition
ISBN 9781910806036
US Edition
ISBN 9781910806173
ASIN B01EAU61V2

This was not an easy book to read. It was not a fun book to read. But it was a very important book to read! It takes the events from the news of the Boko Haram Chibok school girls' kidnappings and recasts it set in England. A group of girls from a British academy and are quickly transported off continent. Often while reading this book I thought about Matthew McConaughey as Jake Tyler Brigance in the film adaption of A Time to Kill. When during the trial he tells the story of the attack and then ends with 'And now imagine she is white!' I could not help but wonder. If Boko Haram had kidnapped European girls if they would have been recovered by now, would we still be hunting for them?

The story is gripping, the events terrible. And as we read this fictionalized version we cannot help but imagine the real life terrors. As a father of daughters I cannot imagine anything worse. There were times I was reading this book where my stomach was in my throat. There were times when I wanted to quit reading, but the subject was too important to take the easy way out. The book really got me praying, for the Chibok school girls, for all victims of violence.

I would not want my children reading this book any time soon. It is not for the faint of heart. And even though it is not explicit in the violence the women face, it leaves one disturbed on many levels.

The story is written in a series of first person narratives, often jumping back and forth from characters and locations and across plot lines. The story is poignant, powerful and profoundly moving.

Turner does an amazing job of presenting many different faith traditions through different characters in this book. Those who are horrified but what their fellow believers have done, to those of a number of different faiths and how they respond to this situation. And though she is a Catholic author and the main theme is a Catholic story it is incredibly well written with respect to other beliefs.

Corinna Turner was troubled by these events and these questions. Her way of helping was to write this book and donate the proceeds to Aid to the Church in Need. It also serves as a reminder that most of those girls are still missing. And to bring them back to mind.

I do not lightly recommend this book. And it is not for all readers. And yet I know that reading this fictionalized version of real events has brought me to my knees in prayer and have forever left a mark upon me.