"A little hope" by Ethan Joella

An audio book.

Freddie Tyler (female), 39, wants to be a writer. She has a daughter Addie, 6. She works as a seamstress 4 days/week for Darsie. Freddie's husband Greg, 39, is dying. He thought he'd eventually help Addie with her economics paper at 2am, that he'd play golf with her boyfriend.

Darsie wonders if she's too pushy a mother. When her husband died 10 years ago, her son Luke (about 20 then) got into booze and pills. His current girlfriend Hannah has pink hair.

Ginger, now a successful vet, used to like Luke. She still does. She wonders if he still sings on stage. She's been with her cute boyfriend Johnny for 2 years, but she has doubts. He has a son. She wonders whether to break up with Johnny. She looks for Luke. He dies in a car accident.

Kay and Alex (Greg's boss) have been together 50 years. Their son Benny died in a bicycle accident. Alex discovered that he'd had a daughter, Iris, by another women, Melinda. He told Kay, who didn't want to know. Alex kept in touch. Now when he's about to be a grandfather, Kay wants to meet the daughter.

When a student, Suzette returned from Finland after a week, bottling out of an opportunity. She's marrying Damon in 8 days and is having cold feet. Her older sister Liza died. Damon's friend Ahmed hasn't found love. He wants kids. He's falling for Ginger who's now broken up. He confesses his love for her.

When 4, Iris learned that her father Doug wasn't her real father. Her new dad Alex often visited. Now she's about to give birth. Dave, who she's only known a few months, is supportive. She wonders if she's making the same mistake as her mother, missing out on fun. The baby dies in the womb but she still has to give birth. She thinks about her half-brother Benny, dreams about him.

Suzette worries about her social services clients. When a girl who she's trying to help attacks her, Greg intercedes. He looks bad.

Ginger has found someone new - Ahmed. She visits Luke's mother, who's still deciding what to throw away. She's angry with Ginger, who saw things in Luke that she, his own mother, hasn't seen.

Freddie's accepted on the Iowa writing course. Greg has recovered.

An ensemble piece in a small American community. Over the course of a year there are births, marriages and deaths. Some people change greatly, some barely at all. I note that some reviews suggest it's more a story collection than a novel but chapters are chronological and are informed by each other, so I'd call it a novel. There's sadness in each story, the main Tyler story being the backdrop, an abiding source of hope.

Other reviews

• Kathryn Eastman
• Walter Cummins (With attention given to the complications of so many people, A Little Hope can be considered a novel in stories, but that category usually refers to a group of related pieces, each with its own resolution. In A Little Hope, the episode shifts from character to character depict a step in a life process, ongoing developments until the novel’s multiple conclusions, the various ways in which the characters reach an outcome to their pending uncertainties. The method is similar to that of multi-character, multi-plot dramas like Downton Abbey that juggle the issues of a group of characters, cutting back and forth episode by episode to advance the situations of each. The creative burden for the writer using this approach is to juggle a group of equally important characters, each with compelling personal story that coheres with that of the others for a larger significance. Joella succeeds.)