Beautifully written and compelling, About Grace is the brilliant debut novel from Anthony Doerr. Growing up in Alaska, young David Winkler is crippled by his dreams. At nine, he dreams a man is decapitated by a passing truck on the path outside his family's home. The next day, unable to prevent it, he witnesses an exact replay of his dream in real life. The premonitions keep coming, unstoppably. He sleepwalks during them, bringing catastrophe into his reach. Then, as unstoppable as a vision, he falls in love, at the supermarket (exactly as he already dreamed) with Sandy. They flee south, landing in Ohio, where their daughter Grace is born. And then the visions of Grace's death begin for Winkler, as their waterside home is inundated. Plagued by the same horrific images of Grace drowning, when the floods come, he cannot face his destiny and flees. He beaches on a remote Caribbean island, where he works as a handyman, chipping away at his doubts and hopes, never knowing whether Grace survived the flood or met the doom he foretold. After two decades, he musters the strength to find out!
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[He made his way through the concourse and stopped by a window to watch a man with two orange wands wave a jet into its gate]***
(Scribner, 8 May 2010, borrowed from my library)
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I fell in love with About Grace. I didn't want to but in the end, I couldn't help myself.
I really didn't want to like David. I think his actions, no matter how good his intent, were despicable. Deciding to track down the wife and daughter he abandoned more than two decades later didn't make up for the choice he made in the first place.
However, despite my best intentions I found my heart warmed to him in the end. Damn it! As much as I wanted to, I couldn't dislike him. He made a crappy choice for the right reasons. He's not the first or last to do such a thing.
About Grace is a fantastic book about love, hope and other things that give you the warm fuzzies. Read it now. Make sure you have a big box of hankies and aren't wearing mascara.
