COME SUNDAY

Jennifer Wiltsie's resourceful range and vocal skills bring this debut novel to life unforgettably. With warmth and sensitivity she portrays Abbe, a part-time journalist, full time wife and mother, and her husband Greg, who is preacher to a dying Honolulu congregation. Especially captivating is Wiltsie’s laugh-out-loud depiction of their precocious 3-year-old daughter, Cleo. Abbe's memories of her childhood in South Africa—specifically, her abusive father and complicit mother—are remote in Hawaii. Then the unthinkable happens—Cleo is killed by a hit-and-run driver. Wiltsie's portrayal of Greg's turn to God and Abbe's retreat to isolation and grief is authentic. She perfectly renders the dissolution of their marriage and Abbe's return to South Africa, where she confronts painful memories and essential decisions. Wiltsie's fascinating portrayal delivers on every level. G.D.W. 2010 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2010, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2010]