It’s such a pleasure today to be joining the blog tour for Small Acts of Kindness by Caroline Day, and sharing my review: the author’s second novel, it was published on 14th March by Zaffre, and is now available both as an ebook and in paperback. My thanks to Tracy Fenton at Compulsive Readers for the invitation and support, and to the publishers for my advance reading e-copy (provided via netgalley).
A new-to-me author, but a name I certainly recognised – I’m still kicking myself that I’ve found it impossible to catch up with Caroline’s debut novel, Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life, that won the RNA’s Joan Hessayon award in 2021 and went on to be a Sunday Times bestseller. So when Tracy’s email about this one hit my inbox, I was delighted – and when I read the lovely synopsis, I knew this was a book I really needed to add to my reading list…
Friendship can bloom in the unlikeliest of places…
Kiki grew up in New Zealand, dreaming of one day going to Glastonbury Festival. Now, mourning the loss of her beloved Yaya – the woman who raised her – she travels to the UK to follow that dream. It is only when she leaves home that she realises just how sheltered her life has been up until now.
Ned lives an active and exciting life. Well, he did until the accident. Now, he’s woken from his coma and no one knows. He can hear everything happening around him, but can’t make his body respond.
Still grieving for her best friend, the one person who’d known how difficult her marriage was, Mrs Malley finds herself lonely and isolated with only her dog, Wordsworth, to keep her company.
Three strangers, all in need of a little kindness in their lives, and this beautifully poignant and uplifting novel shows us the world through their eyes whilst highlighting the power of human connection.
I’m going to admit – and I know it’s no way to start a review – that it took me a little while to settle into reading this book. First, a moment on a football field that has life-changing consequences for one character, then we pick up the voice of Kiki – apparently wronged by everyone whose path she’s crossed, arriving in the pretty village in her ill-fitting frog wellies. And then another voice – a distinctly miserable older woman, still berating her dead husband and with an apparent grudge against the world in general. I really thought it might become rather heavy going – I’m not a massive fan of quirky, that looked to be the way it was developing, and over a whole book I really thought those voices might begin to grate. But no – I’m really delighted to tell you that this proved to be a book I thoroughly enjoyed, with its three main characters entirely winning my heart, making me laugh and cry in equal measure until I closed it at its perfect end with tear in my eye and a satisfied sigh. Honestly, it’s just wonderful…
Kiki is from New Zealand, brought up by her grandparents in a gypsy caravan after the death of her mother – after losing them, she’s in England to try to find out what happened to her, maybe discover more about her father, and it all hinges on securing an elusive ticket for Glastonbury. And then there’s the mystery of Stan Douglas – in her mixed up mind, she becomes convinced that he’s the man who killed her mother. But, for now, she’s staying at the local pub, working behind the bar – directed there by that misery whose doorstep she turned up on, Mrs Malley. We find that she’s rather struggling after a recent bereavement – not so much her husband Roger, but the loss of her vibrant close friend Harriet a few months earlier. But she does have company – Harriet’s disobedient dog Wordsworth, digging up her lawn, constantly escaping from the garden, and with his own starring role in the story. And then there’s Ned – that accident on the football field first leaves him in a coma, then paralysed, aware of everything happening around him but entirely unable to communicate.
The story is told through their three clear and consistent voices, as their lives intersect and their relationships develop – with unexpected twists and turns, lots of humour, more than a few problems with communication, a number of misunderstandings, interventions (timely, and otherwise) by equally well-drawn supporting characters, moments that are so beautifully uplifting and others that entirely break your heart. The way it unfolds – streams of consciousness from all three distinctive (and yes, definitely quirky…) individuals – might not be to everyone’s taste, but I thought it was just excellent. The pacing of the story is just right too – gentle at times, but a page-turner in every possible way – and the author’s emotional touch is simply perfect. An unusual read, and very different – but I have to say that I absolutely adored it.
About the author
Caroline Day is an author, journalist and consultant editor from Crouch End, North London, where she lives with her husband and two beagle-cross rescue dogs, Snoopy and Charlie Brown. Her debut novel, Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life, was a Sunday Times bestseller, Goldsboro Books’ Book Of The Month, and was awarded the Joan Hessayon Prize for new writers by the Romantic Novelists Association of which she is a member. Small Acts of Kindness is her second novel.
