Sail Upon the Land by Josa Young

 

From Goodreads

What happens when two fractured families collide in the dynamic social landscape of the last eighty years?

An accidental inheritance changes everything for an insecure young man.

The mysterious death of a new mother damages the precious continuity of family love.

And a gap-year student's misguided romance ends in life-changing disaster. Or does it?

SARAH
Is the courage she displays during WWII enough to carry her through a long life of love and loss?

MELISSA
Living in her own fairytale, will she find the strength she needs to survive reality?

DAMSON
Rejecting her background following an appalling ordeal, can this driven young woman ever find her way home?

MELLITA
Who is she really, and will she deliver the one precious gift that will heal all their wounds?

My thoughts

My thanks to the Author via TBC on FB (The Book Club on Facebook) for the copy of this in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this a 4 stars or 8/10.

This was a tale that spanned the generations of a family, featuring mainly on four females in the family and their relationships with each other and others around them. It focuses on a character in each chapter, it lets you know the character that the chapter is about and also at what period in time that the action contained within that chapter is happening. It moves backwards and forwards through time, but this is easy to follow.

This was a well written thought provoking story that draws you in, it deals with some serious issues including rape and mental health.  These are handled well and the repercussions that these issues have on certain characters are far reaching. 

In the story as it develops you realise that history often repeats itself in many ways in families and this is so often true in real life too.  I feel that the Author has drawn on life experiences (not necessarily her own) and narrated a great read around things that can so often and so easily happen to any of us.

This is the first read of mine by this Author and I will definitely be reading more by her as I come across them.  This would make a great reading group read.