If My Father Loved Me

The death of Sadie's father disrupts her organised life and she starts to wonder about him and her former certainties. Sadie tries to avoid having the same sort of relationship with her son that she had with her father but finds her son taking refuge with one of his grandfather's old friends rather than spending time at home.
The people in this book with their complexities and problems are so real that it is a struggle to re-enter the real world once you come to the end of the book.

I thought this a wonderful book, following a woman's exploration into her childhood. Did her father neglect and despise her, or did he love her, deep down? Was he ignoring her, or protecting her?

Sadie narrates the book, and I thought the pace was excellent. She has a twelve-year-old son Jack who is going through a difficult phase, and an ex-husband who has remarried. She has some good friends and there's a low-key romantic them too.

I might not have appreciated this book so much twenty years ago; there's a lot of introspection and it's character-based rather than having much plot. But I thoroughly enjoyed reading it recently, and would recommend it highly to anyone who likes thoughtful - and, in the end encouraging - women's fiction. show more

Full review here: https://suesbookreviews.blogspot.com/2019/09/if-my-father-loved-me-by-rosie-thom... show less

This was a very powerful and deeply moving read about the main character's relationship with her father, and the need to reinterpret her relationship with him after his death. The real skill likes in the intricate depiction of the family relationships and how they change and develop over time.

I also loved the gentle romance with the teacher in the book, and how that is resolved. I couldn't put the book down. Verdict: simply excellent.