Beautiful

The Way To The Sea by Victoria Connelly is a simply beautiful contemporary novel that warmed my heart and soothed my soul.

At the heart of the novel are three broken people – trauma and loss over the years has devastated lives. Each are imprisoned within themselves. Each needs awakening to learn to live again.

Loss devastates. “It seemed barbaric to him that he should even think of life after Jamie. What right did he have to be happy again when his son lay in his grave?” This loss occurred before the book opened. A life is trapped in time – moving backwards is impossible, moving forwards is incomprehensible, and so life is suspended.

The other two souls are victims of domestic abuse (before the novel opened). Trauma has isolated the pair. “I started to believe his lies I wasn’t a good person, that I didn’t deserve friends.” If someone lies to us often enough, we begin to believe them and our self confidence ebbs away. We judge ourselves to be unworthy. It takes courage to break the cycle.

We also witness the cruelty that is dementia. Just occasionally we glimpse the person they used to be.

We all wear masks that hide our true selves. Only when we feel comfortable with someone will we open up. “You should never judge anybody by appearance. You never know the secret battles they were fighting or the things they’d endured.”