Waiting for the Miracle: Warm your heart with this uplifting novel from the bestselling author of THE LAST DAYS OF RABBIT HAYES

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The jetlag and the vodka put him to sleep, and by the time he woke up the bus was approaching its last stop: Central Park South and Sixth Avenue. It was dark now, and snowing lightly, but none of that mattered to Vadik. He had made it. The skyscrapers hovered above his head, as if suspended in a yellow fog. The Park looked deserted, so he decided to head down Sixth Avenue. He walked along the wet sidewalk, crossing whenever the light turned green, turning right or left whenever he felt like it, stepping through puddles of slush. Soon he had no idea which direction he was going in. He didn’t care. He was taking everything in—the buildings, the storefronts, the limos and yellow cabs, the people. There were so many people. Alive, energetic, determined, all in a rush to get somewhere. Women. Beautiful women. Some looked at him. Some even smiled. He felt very tall. He felt gigantic. He felt as if his head were on the same level as those breathtaking Times Square billboards. Everything seemed within reach. Hell, he felt as if he could just snap the enormous steaming Cup Noodles off the side of that building. He felt as if he were consuming the city, eating it up. It was his city. He had finally found it. The book has a dual timeline - we meet Caroline in 2010, married to Dave and struggling with infertility. She wants to try one last round of IVF but he doesn’t. She attends a infertility support group and we meet some of the women in the group on their own difficult journeys (Janet, Natalie and Ronnie).

For friends Caroline, Janet, Natalie and Ronnie, motherhood is a distant dream. They meet at a self-help group for women desperate for a baby, and soon form a close-knit bond, supporting each other not just through the perils and pitfalls of IVF treatment, miscarriages and artificial insemination, but also though the emotional fallout their constantly dashed dreams have on their relationships with partners and family. She asked him where he was staying, and the answer seemed to horrify her. “Staten Island?” she said. “But it’s so late! How are you going to get there?” And then she cleared her throat and offered to let him stay at her place. Vadik squeezed her hand even tighter.The overriding theme in Waiting for the Miracle is infertility, but in addition to this, secondary themes also include the treatment meted out to unmarried mothers in Ireland in the not too distant past, friendship, resilience, family values and the fact that sometimes we do get to choose and create our own families. I do not hesitate to recommend this magnificent book to everyone. Sure to be in my top books of this year.'

This story gets under your skin, mostly because we know these stories are real. It's no secret that so many girls/young women found themselves in similar situations. We hear stories all the time from those who spent a lifetime searching for their 'lost children'. The I here is 'up there'(reaching for the sky), and the You is waiting below, making a lot of noise with her drum and bugle, she's not playing a soft flute, no she tries to give him a wake-up call! Natalie and her partner, Linda, are hoping to use her twin Paul's sperm so that their IVF baby will have both their DNA. Is this just a little too close for comfort in the familial relations stakes?They got to the bus stop a second after the bus pulled away. They had to race to intercept it at the next stop. And then Vadik was in, dropping his coins into the slot one by one as the bus pulled off. Heading to the city. They walked down a wide avenue, then turned onto a narrow street. Vadik loved this street. The dark trees. The cheerful details on the stone façades. The piles of hardened snow gleaming under the streetlamps. Rachel led him into one of the brownstones and up creaky stairs to her fifth-floor one-bedroom. The stairs were carpeted. The railings were carved. Vadik’s heart was beating like crazy. You will be gripped by both stories and wonder where the book is going ... but it gets better and better.' Too late: she has already fallen on a dangerous place in the rain, she has given up, she is exhausted. His advise: Of course you won't complain or talk about it, other people won't understand. Do what I keep doing, don't loosen your grip, keep on waiting like I do: I up there, you lying in the rain!