Review: The Hummingbird by Stephen P. Kiernan

From the author of the acclaimed The Curiosity comes a compelling and moving story of compassion, courage, and redemption

Deborah Birch is a seasoned hospice nurse whose daily work requires courage and compassion. But her skills and experience are tested in new and dramatic ways when her easygoing husband, Michael, returns from his third deployment to Iraq haunted by nightmares, anxiety, and rage. She is determined to help him heal, and to restore the tender, loving marriage they once had.

At the same time, Deborahs primary patient is Barclay Reed, a retired history professor and expert in the Pacific Theater of World War II whose career ended in academic scandal. Alone in the world, the embittered professor is dying. As Barclay begrudgingly comes to trust Deborah, he tells her stories from that long-ago war, which help her find a way to help her husband battle his demons.

Told with piercing empathy and heartbreaking realism, The Hummingbird is a masterful story of loving commitment, service to country, and absolution through wisdom and forgiveness.

Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: September 8th 2015 by William Morrow

 

Terri's Thoughts

**I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher William Morrow via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.  The expected publication date is September 8, 2015**

This is a story that hit a little close to home at the moment so I am not sure if I can give it a truly unbiased review.  So this will be a short one.

This is a story of someone who is dying from a horrible disease and the caretaker whose job it is to stay with him until he passes.  It is the story of healing during the dying process as well as a story of learning and growing right up until the end.  It is a story about how those at the end of their path still have the ability to teach those who are not.

I found this to be a moving story.  From Barclay's story of Cancer to Michael's struggle with integrating back in to life following three deployments, it is one that consumes you emotionally.  Then for extra interest there is the story of WWII just to add a little bit extra.

This was a story that I took my time with as I feel it deserved to be read slowly instead of the usual power reading I do.  While it may have left me a little bit emotionally drained due to its subject matter I found it to be a wonderful read

 

 

About the Author

 

Stephen Kiernan's new novel, THE HUMMINGBIRD, will be out Sept. 8, 2015.
This novel is about a hospice nurse who is caring for a curmudgeonly older patient with some ghosts in his past. Yet he may have ideas about how she can help her husband, just home from his 3rd deployment in Iraq, reckon with the scars of that experience. It is a story about loyalty patience, courage and love.

Stephen also wrote the novel THE CURIOSITY, a scientific thriller and a love story across two centuries. The book came out in numerous foreign editions, and 20th Century Fox bought the film option.

Stephen previously worked for decades as a journalist, winning over 40 awards. His first book, LAST RIGHTS, was an expose on the overly aggressive medical treatment most people receive in the last chapter of their lives, with many suggestions for ways of providing more humane care. His second book, the Silver Nautilus Award-winning AUTHENTIC PATRIOTISM, describes the potential for national renewal through nonpartisan civic engagement and volunteerism.

He lives in Vermont with his two amazing sons

Website