Chris Fabry's Every Waking Moment ~ Reviewed

Every Waking Moment
by Chris Fabry (Author)
Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (August 16, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1414348630
Description:

A 2014 Christianity Today Award of Merit winner!
Treha Langsam is a mysterious young woman who has fallen through the cracks, much like many of the elderly people she works with at Desert Gardens Retirement Home. But Miriam Howard, director of the facility, sees her extraordinary gift and untapped potential. Treha is a whisperer of sorts, calling those who have slipped into dementia back to a life of vibrant, if only temporary, clarity.

When Treha’s and Miriam’s stories intertwine with a documentary team looking for stories of the elderly, Treha’s gift is uncovered, and the search begins for answers to the mysteries of her past. As their paths converge, each person is forced to face the same difficult question: What if this is as good as my life gets?

An uplifting, human tale of an ordinary woman with an extraordinary gift.

Review:

I love fiction centering around anti-heroes. By that I mean the heroes who don't really fit the mold created for us. No capes, no spandex brightly colored jumpsuits, just real, flawed people. 

Treha is one such hero. A girl with a drive to find someone to love her, a disability and a mind that somehow connects with others in an extremely unusual way. As she struggles to find her own story she inspires others to tell or refine their own. The setting for most of the story is a nursing home where life and death are all too real. 

A budding filmmaker finds that his story is in the story of others as well and that Treha holds a key to the one piece of information not available to him. The nursing home administrator discovers that she has less control over her life than she had realized and struggles to find hope in her bleak future. 

This is a heartbreaking but very hopeful story that left me with a satisfied sigh when I turned the last page. 

Reviewed by: Kelly Klepfer