The Choice By Penny Hancock

‘The Choice’ is the latest book by Penny Hancock.

An estranged daughter. A missing grandson. A mother faced with an impossible choice. Renee Gulliver appears to have it all: a beautiful house overlooking a scenic estuary on England’s East Coast, a successful career as a relationship therapist, three grown-up children and a beloved grandson, Xavier. But things aren’t always as they seem on the surface, as Renee is all too aware. And when Xavier vanishes after she fails to pick him up from school one day, the repercussions are manifold. Renee is wracked with remorse; her daughter Mia can’t forgive her, the local community question her priorities and her clients abandon her. But as long-held family secrets threaten to tear her world apart once and for all, those same secrets might also hold hope for the future—because it’s not always the secret itself that has the power to destroy, sometimes it’s the act of keeping of it.

If you enjoy stories of family conflict, then ‘The Choice’ is just the hard hitting drama for you.

Renee has had a difficult life, estranged from her middle daughter and struggling to adapt to her husband Tobias since his stroke, she wishes her family was much more straight forward. The irony is that she’s a family therapist, helping others whilst her own family is falling apart. Her eldest daughter is strong willed and doesn’t want to have anything to do with her younger sister, Irena who hurt their youngest brother for life with an accident. But one day, distracted by life Renee forgets she has to pick up her grandson and this opens a world of new wounds that she fears will never be healed.

This story is an emotional and turbulent one that really made me sympathise with Renee, her life is far from easy, with a demanding husband and daughter, an estranged daughter and her mother is battling dementia and is obsessed with the state of her daughter’s hair.
The different narratives from Renee and Irena made for interesting reading. I really warmed to Irena, from Renee’s perspective you’re lead to believe that Irena is the bad guy, refusing to reconnect with her family. But, once you read her perspective, you realise that she’s a lovely, warm perspective person who’s been severely wronged by her family.

A story of reconciliation and heartbreak, ‘The Choice’ is a tender and insightful exploration into family conflict and dynamics and the hardship that’s encountered when forced to take sides.

You can buy ‘The Choice’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.