{"product_id":"9781913193614-everything-happens-for-a-reason","title":"Everything Happens for a Reason","description":"\u003cmeta content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\"\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhen Rachel’s baby is stillborn, she becomes obsessed with the idea that saving a stranger’s life months earlier is to blame. An unforgettable, heart-wrenching, warm and funny debut.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhen Rachel's baby is stillborn, she becomes obsessed with the idea that saving a stranger's life months earlier is to blame. An unforgettable, heart-wrenching, warm and funny debut…\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Emotionally engaging, witty, clever and wonderfully satisfying’ \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eDaily Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘A stunning debut … a wise, moving, and thought-provoking novel’ \u003cb\u003eSusan Elliot Wright, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Flight of Cornelia Blackwood\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘A heartbreaking, deeply moving and wonderfully witty tale, which celebrates all it means to be human’ \u003cb\u003eIsabelle Broom, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Getaway\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ––––––––––––––––––––––––\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son, Luke, was stillborn and she finds herself on maternity leave without a baby, trying to make sense of her loss.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When a misguided well-wisher tells her that “everything happens for a reason”, she becomes obsessed with finding that reason, driven by grief and convinced that she is somehow to blame. She remembers that on the day she discovered her pregnancy, she’d stopped a man from jumping in front of a train, and she’s now certain that saving his life cost her the life of her son.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Desperate to find him, she enlists an unlikely ally in Lola, an Underground worker, and Lola’s seven-year-old daughter, Josephine, and eventually tracks him down, with completely unexpected results. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Both a heart-wrenchingly poignant portrait of grief and a gloriously uplifting and disarmingly funny story of a young woman’s determination, \u003ci\u003eEverything Happens for a Reason\u003c\/i\u003e is a bittersweet, life- affirming read and, quite simply, unforgettable.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ––––––––––––––––––––––––\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Very few authors can be funny and break your heart at the same time, but Katie Allen is one. \u003ci\u003eEverything Happens for a Reason\u003c\/i\u003e is a beautiful novel, bursting with raw emotional honesty and authenticity’ \u003cb\u003eGill Paul, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Secret Wife\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘So affecting. Profoundly sad. Funny. I just loved it’\u003cb\u003e Louise Beech, author of \u003ci\u003eThis Is How We Are Human\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘Darkly funny, yet poignant and moving, this is one of those books that gets under your skin. A brutally honest portrayal of grief, Rachel's quest to find out if everything happens for a reason is both heartbreaking and heartwarming’ \u003cb\u003eAnna Bell, author of \u003ci\u003eIn Case You Missed It\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘“Some books teach you, others touch your soul, then there are books like this one that bury deep and create a home in your heart’ \u003cb\u003eEmma-Claire Wilson, \u003ci\u003eGlass House Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘A triumph … a book of hope and ambition and making sense of the world, a tale of acting spontaneously, living in the moment and throwing caution to the wind’ \u003cb\u003eIsabella May, author of \u003ci\u003eOh! What a Pavlova\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘You'll laugh, you'll cry … you'll finish this book, set it aside and wonder at the honesty, and empathy of this writer’ \u003cb\u003eMichael J Malone, author of \u003ci\u003eA Song of Isolation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘An incredibly important and beautifully written book. Bittersweet and brave, it will keep you both laughing and crying until the last page’ \u003cb\u003eKate Ford, actress, \u003ci\u003eCoronation Street\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘The perfect mix of clever, funny and intensely moving’ \u003cb\u003eCari Rosen, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Secret Diary of a New Mum Aged 43 1\/4\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘A heart-wrenching, soul-lifting read about loss and redemption in unlikely places’ \u003cb\u003eEve Smith, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Waiting Rooms\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Read it and weep but also, incredibly, find moments to laugh and to know there is life after death’ \u003cb\u003eJulia Hobsbawm, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Simplicity Principle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Beautiful … sad, quirky and at times very funny’ \u003cb\u003eMadeleine Black, author of \u003ci\u003eUnbroken\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Allen’s debut is simultaneously devastating and hilarious. It takes courage to bring out the humour in heartbreak and Allen has courage in spades’ \u003cb\u003eClare Allan, author of \u003ci\u003ePoppy Shakespeare\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘A memorable, poetic read . I felt as if I was watching Rachel going off the rails, trying to make sense of her life without her baby, befriending every lost soul on the way and getting so many things horribly wrong. The writing reminded of \u003ci\u003eEleanor Oliphant\u003c\/i\u003e … an excellent debut novel’ \u003cb\u003eBecky Fleetwood, author of the Chroma series\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ‘Quirky yet insightful, bright yet wistful, amusing yet emotional … full of contradictions that fuse into the most surprising, moving, and beautiful novel’ \u003cb\u003eLiz Robinson, LoveReading\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e ‘Allen masterfully balances tragedy and humour in this vital story about making sense of the profoundly nonsensical – the death of a baby’ \u003cb\u003eJulia Bueno author of \u003ci\u003eThe Brink of Being\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e For fans of Jonas Jonasson, Matt Haig, Graeme Simsion and Rachel Joyce.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Rarewaves","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57535955599734,"sku":"9781913193614","price":7.13,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0092\/7504\/8033\/files\/orig_31827199.jpg?v=1774283515","url":"https:\/\/www.rarewaves.com\/products\/9781913193614-everything-happens-for-a-reason","provider":"Rarewaves.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}