When Rachel's baby is stillborn, she becomes obsessed with the idea
that saving a stranger's life months earlier is to blame. An
unforgettable, heart-wrenching, warm and funny debut...
'Emotionally engaging, witty, clever and wonderfully satisfying'
Daily Express
'A stunning debut ... a wise, moving, and thought-provoking novel'
Susan Elliot Wright, author of The Flight of Cornelia Blackwood
'A heartbreaking, deeply moving and wonderfully witty tale, which
celebrates all it means to be human' Isabelle Broom, author of The
Getaway
Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son,
Luke, was stillborn and she finds herself on maternity leave without a
baby, trying to make sense of her loss.
When a misguided well-wisher tells her that "everything happens for a
reason", she becomes obsessed with finding that reason, driven by grief
and convinced that she is somehow to blame. She remembers that on the
day she discovered her pregnancy, she'd stopped a man from jumping in
front of a train, and she's now certain that saving his life cost her
the life of her son.
Desperate to find him, she enlists an unlikely ally in Lola, an
Underground worker, and Lola's seven-year-old daughter, Josephine, and
eventually tracks him down, with completely unexpected results...
Both a heart-wrenchingly poignant portrait of grief and a gloriously
uplifting and disarmingly funny story of a young woman's determination,
Everything Happens for a Reason is a bittersweet, life- affirming read
and, quite simply, unforgettable.
'A beautiful novel, bursting with raw emotional honesty and
authenticity' Gill Paul, author of The Secret Wife
'So affecting. Profoundly sad. Funny. I just loved it' Louise Beech,
author of This Is How We Are Human
'Darkly funny, yet poignant and moving ... Rachel's quest to find out if
everything happens for a reason is both heartbreaking and heartwarming'
Anna Bell, author of In Case You Missed It
'Some books teach you, others touch your soul, then there are books like
this one that bury deep and create a home in your heart' Emma-Claire
Wilson, Glass House Magazine
'A triumph ... a book of hope and ambition and making sense of the
world, a tale of acting spontaneously, living in the moment and throwing
caution to the wind' Isabella May, author of Oh! What a Pavlova
'An incredibly important and beautifully written book. Bittersweet and
brave, it will keep you both laughing and crying until the last page'
Kate Ford, actress, Coronation Street
'The perfect mix of clever, funny and intensely moving' Cari Rosen,
author of Secret Diary of a New Mum Aged 43 1/4
'A heart-wrenching, soul-lifting read about loss and redemption in
unlikely places' Eve Smith, author of The Waiting Rooms
'Read it and weep but also, incredibly, find moments to laugh and to
know there is life after death' Julia Hobsbawm, author of The
Simplicity Principle
'Simultaneously devastating and hilarious' Clare Allan, author of
Poppy Shakespeare
'A memorable, poetic read ... The writing reminded me of Eleanor
Oliphant' Becky Fleetwood, author of the Chroma series
'Quirky yet insightful, bright yet wistful, amusing yet emotional ...
full of contradictions that fuse into the most surprising, moving, and
beautiful novel' LoveReading
For fans of Jonas Jonasson, Matt Haig, Graeme Simsion and Rachel Joyce.
