The Gift

My local library managed to get this one for me in the week between Christmas and New Year which was nice timing. The story of Lou, the workaholic father of two who spends his entire life letting his family down as he focus solely on his rise up the corporate ladder started out well. As he gets homeless man, Gabe (Gabriel), a job in his office postroom over the festive period things are all happy and fine. Things start to unravel though when Gabe appears at unexpected times and begins to ferret his way into Lou's life, questioning his choices and generally making him rather paranoid. Until this point all is well with the book.

From there things start to wierd out a little and Gabe becomes more than meets the eye as he provides Lou with a Christmas ‘gift' that will seemingly solve all his problems. But can there ever really be an easy answer to all life's problems?

I liked the start of this book very much, I liked the relationship between Lou and his wife and the chapters when Cecelia wrote about this were inspired and touching however I do feel the book was cut rather short, didn't particularly like the ending and felt that an opportunity to really touch emotions was missed.

Worth reading - yes as a Christmas read - bit pointless at other times of the year but not as good as her previous offerings.

The thing about Ahern's writings that I like the most is that she managed to write emotional stories without being sappy. The Gift itself is not an exception.

I did not have any expectation when I started reading this novel. I just read. And found myself immersed in the story. I found myself being enchanted with the words and the characters. Oh yes, Ahern is one crafty writer, slowly pulling you in into her story.

What I love most about The Gift is the totally unexpected ending. Albeit tragic, there is no other way to end the story perfectly. Ahern is teaching her readers a very important lesson here so pay attention.