Published 28th April 2022 by Muswell Press.
From the cover of the book:
In the small town of Wharton, Connecticut, lives are beginning to unravel. A husband betrays his wife. A son struggles with addiction. A widow misses her late spouse.At the heart of these interlinking stories is one couple: Freddie and Greg Tyler. Greg has just been diagnosed with a brutal form of cancer. He intends to handle this the way he has faced everything else: through grit and determination. But can he successfully overcome his illness? How will the Freddie and their daughter cope if he doesn’t?
How do the other residents of Wharton learn to live with loss and find happiness again?
Celebrating the grace in everyday life, this powerful debut immerses the reader in a community of friends, family, and neighbours and identifies the ways that love and forgiveness can help us survive even the most difficult of life’s challenges.
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Welcome to Wharton, a quiet little town in Connecticut. All seems peaceful, but what goes on behind the doors of this small town? We are about to get a glimpse into the lives of some of Wharton's residents, as we follow their trials and tribulations, their loves and losses... and get an intricate picture of how their little private bubbles interconnect.
Let's begin with the family that sit at the centre of what is to follow: the Tyler family. Freddie and Greg seem to have it all, with a lovely house on the edge of the woods, a beautiful daughter Addie, and the obligatory pet cat and dog to complete the picture of domestic bliss. But things are about to unravel in this household - Greg has been diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, and while he is determined to tackle his illness head-on, the future of this American Dream is uncertain.
Then we meet Greg's boss Alex Lionel, and his wife Kay, who have endured years of unbearable grief after the loss of their son in a tragic accident. Alex looks upon Greg as a surrogate son, something openly acknowledged between him and Kay, but Alex also holds a secret - one that Kay cannot bear to come to terms with in her seemingly never-ending anguish about the future that was denied them.
Meanwhile, Freddie's boss Darcy Colley misses her late husband Von terribly, and worries constantly about her son Luke and the direction his life has taken; as Luke struggles to get his life back on track, reeling from the death of his father, and for ever regretting the loss of Ginger the one true love of his life. Ginger Lord is also back in town to be a bridesmaid, thinking about what might have been with Luke; the bride Suzette has last minute jitters; and groomsman Ahmed is pondering whether he will ever find true love.
The next few months will tell which of Wharton's close-knit community will sink or swim, but there's always hope, isn't there?
A Little Hope is one of those shining literary jewels that perfectly sums up what it means to be human. Ethan Joella writes beautifully about the rhythm of life, its peaks and troughs, and the way the lives of those in a small community interconnect, by taking you through a few months of small town existence in Wharton. This is a quietly intense story, that draws you in and stirs your emotions in a profoundly moving way, simply by looking behind the facade of the public images we show to the world at large. There are no bells and whistles here, despite our characters experiencing some significant life-altering moments, but in the hands of a talented writer, real life is more than enough.
The focus of this story is a family whose happiness is shattered by a diagnosis that throws everything into uncertainty. Greg, perhaps not yet understanding the full implications of his condition, tries to carry on as normal, but it is clear from the outset that Freddie is unable to do the same. Her fear is paralysing, and her mind cannot help but run on into what this means for them all. Through them, we are introduced to the wider community and their own private sorrows - Greg's boss Alex and his wife Kay, still finding a way to cope with the loss of their son, and the fracture in their relationship that it caused; and Freddie's boss Darcy, attempting to come to terms with the recent death of her beloved husband, and the distance that has arisen between her and her son Luke.
Like trailing vines that weave beyond these characters, we come to know more members of the Wharton community, and the full impact of the experiences that have shaped them. I loved how for each new character we meet, spreading out through different parts of the community like a chain reaction as their lives touch, we quickly become intimate with their hopes, dreams and worries - often bringing with it the knowledge of the stark differences between the faces they show to their family, friends and neighbours, and their inner turmoil. By and large, they share the connection of how grief, fear and regret dictate their interactions with the world, which I think is essentially true for us all - especially as you get older. So much of what happens in this book strikes a chord, and rings with truth, which is the mark of an insightful writer.
At each turn, Joella gets to the heart of what makes these people who they are, and how their lives reverberate with those they come into contact with. The community itself takes on the sense that it is a living, breathing thing, with each person being an integrated part of something much bigger. There is a wonderfully circular notion about the whole piece too, that brings us full circle by the time we reach the end of our time in Wharton, which I found very powerful.
I cannot express quite how impressive this life-affirming debut really is. As an exploration of humanity; the things we cling to; the moments we ponder about the road not taken; and our fears that the future we envisaged can be snatched away from us all too easily, this is magnificent. There is a lot of loss in this story, but underpinning all there lies the comforting whisper of hope, and this makes it utterly compelling. I absorbed this little beauty in one delicious bite, and sobbed when I reached the final page.
This is a serious contender for my book of 2022, which is saying a lot, and I cannot wait for Joella's second novel, A Quiet Life, which is out in November 2022. If you enjoy the kind of genuine and many layered tale that Elizabeth Strout makes look so easy, then you will love this!
A Little Hope is available to buy now in hardcover, ebook and audio formats.
Thank you to Muswell Press for sending me a proof of this book in return for an honest review, and for inviting meto be part of this blog tour.
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