Nearer than the Sky
By T. Greenwood
4/5
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About this ebook
When Indie Brown was four years old, she was struck by lightning. In the oft-told version of the story, Indie's life was heroically saved by her mother. Indie's own recollection of the event, however, is very different.
Most of Indie's childhood memories are tinged with unsettling images and suspicions. Now her mother, Judy, is gravely ill. Indie is forced to return home and confront the truth about her half-remembered past and the legacy that still haunts her family. And as she revisits her childhood, with its nightmares and lost innocence, she finds she must reevaluate the choices of her adulthood - including her most precious relationships.
T. Greenwood
T. GREENWOOD's novels have sold over 300,000 copies. She has received grants from the Sherwood Anderson Foundation, the Christopher Isherwood Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council. Her novel Bodies of Water was a 2014 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist, and she is the recipient of four San Diego Book Awards. Keeping Lucy was a 2020 Target Book Club pick. Greenwood lives with her family in San Diego and Vermont.
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Reviews for Nearer than the Sky
42 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Well written, scary, pulls the reader in from the beginning. The subject at the base of the story is the illness called Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, a frightening disorder that is frequently passed on in following generations. Greenwood does a credible job with flashbacks as the heroine Indie is finally forced to put the pieces together and face the fact that their mother's fixation on her pretty, younger sister Lily was spurred by a terrible kind of abuse. Indie's marriage to Peter at an early age, the move across the country where they started a new life were how she managed to put all the troubling memories of the past behind her, to deny what she suspected to be the truth. But when she is summoned home by Lily when their mother is sick, Indie soon realizes that Lily's treatment of her own baby daughter is a repeat of what their mother had done to Lily herself. It is then that the past crashes in on her and Indie knows that Lily's baby's life is at stake; the repeated trips to the hospital when little Violet stops breathing are not happening because the baby was born with poor lungs. This author has shown how a person suffering from Munchhausen Syndrome can not only damage the child on whom she inflicts physical abuse, but that her actions can also lead to the devastation of an entire family. Frightening, emotional, and thought provoking. This book is a page-turner; I virtually read it in one day.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Nearer Than the Sky recounts the story of generations of a family's grief.Indie Brown has a secure and happy adult life. Suddenly she is drawn back to her family home when her infant niece becomes seriously ill. Once home, Indie suspects her sister Lily is harming her own baby. As the story unfolds, Indie comes to the realization that their mother was behind Lily's own sickly childhood.There have been cases in the media and legal system regarding Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy. This is a complex mental illness where the person affected, usually the mother, causes harm to her child. This brings attention to the child, but also to herself. She becomes addicted to the sympathy and attention. Obviously, there are inevitable lifelong consequences.This book is well written in its handling and explanation of the disorder. The treatment and respect of the characters is also well done. Their relationships are tightly woven, exposing the fragile nature of mental illness, especially within mother-daughter relationships.T. Greenwood handles a sensitive situation well, exposing a little discussed problem in a natural and realistic manner.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indie has put a lot of distance between herself and her family, and her life with her partner in Vermont is good. When their mother gets sick - she's sure she's being poisoned - she goes home to help. Her visit brings childhood memories to the surface, of how her sister was the favorite, the pretty one. Their mother took her to contests and pageants while she stayed home with their retarded brother. But there are other memories, of her sister getting sick with mysterious illnesses. What part did their mother play in this? Now Indie sees that her sister may be acting out the same pattern with her own daughter. It's what they know, after all.It's an interesting book about families - how it feels to be the daughter who doesn't get attention, even if that attention is deadly; how patterns get repeated; how it is to be the one who always needs help. I liked it a lot.