Alive and kicking - Clare Woodward

The death of a child is every parent's worst nightmare. The extent of Julia Grant's loss is beyond most people's imagination. When her plan to end her misery by suicide is thwarted, and she finds herself locked into seemingly never-ending depression, she seeks a positive reason to go on living. To carry through her scheme for rebuilding her life, Julia needs help. Will it come from her remaining family, from her new friends at evening class, or from an old acquaintance? The last thing Julia wants is to cause suffering to others. But it seems her return to some semblance of normality may only be achievable at someone else's expense. This is a delicately crafted story of loss, suffering and recovery, told with rare perception and understanding. 'Alive and Kicking is a carefully crafted and powerful portrait of a survivor. Clare Woodward is a name to watch...It is evidence of her skill as a writer that she makes us care for Julia and want to see, at the very least, a positive outcome to her ordeal. And she is able, very effectively, to let us inhabit the closed world of Julia's grief, a world initially without colour or human contact, even, in the most literal sense, without humanity.