The Brighton to London line. The 7:44 am train. Cars packed with commuters. One woman occupies her time observing the people around her. Opposite, a girl puts on her make-up. Across the aisle, a husband strokes his wife's hand. Further along, another woman flicks through a glossy magazine. Then, abruptly, everything changes: a man collapses, the train is stopped, and an ambulance is called.
For at least three passengers on the 7:44 on that particular morning, life will never be the same again. There's Lou, in an adjacent seat, who witnesses events first hand. Anna, who's sitting further up the train, impatient to get to work. And Karen, the man's wife.
Telling the story of the week following that fateful train journey, One Moment, One Morning is a stunning novel about love and loss, about family and – above all– friendship. A stark reminder that, sometimes, one moment is all it takes to shatter everything. Yet it also reminds us that somehow, despite it all, life can and does go on.
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Publishers Weekly
A man’s sudden death touches off seismic shifts in the lives of three women, wife-turned-widow Karen, neighbor Anna, and teacher—and closeted lesbian—Lou, in this affecting weeper about friendship and family. Rayner (Getting Even) takes a random tragedy on a morning commuter train from Brighton to London and parses it over the hours of six days plucked from half a year, dissecting the women’s emotional unraveling and eventual rebirth as stronger mothers, lovers, friends. The aching loss heaped swiftly upon Karen and her two young children, Molly and Luke, is reason enough to cry, but their search for solace turns from maudlin and mundane to insightful and fresh thanks in part to the pleasing retrospective flashbacks of this family’s life. “It’s his failings that made him who he was,” Karen confesses in her plaintive eulogy. And while Karen rebuilds her fractured family, best friend Anna contemplates the end of an abusive relationship with a charming drunk, and Lou finally trusts her heart enough to come out to a family she vastly underestimates. Rayner sets up a tricky emotional minefield for these vulnerable women, but deftly guides them to a place of power and truth. (Jan.)
From the Publisher
Oh, what a novel ! It will make you laugh and cry, it will make you want to call your dear ones to tell them how much you love them, it will make you buy it for all your friends. When you get to the end, Anna, Lou and Karen will feel like they are your soul sisters. ” Tatiana de Rosnay, author of A Secret Kept and Sarah's Key“Shocking, gripping, and beautifully rendered. I found it impossible to put down!” Beth Harbison, author of Always Something There To Remind Me
“A moving account of what happens to three women in one week when a man dies on a Brighton to London commuter train. Very impressive.” Bookseller (UK)
“Carried along by the momentum of a suspense-filled yet touching story that drives to the core of human emotion, this book is a real page-turner, exploring the harrowing pain of loss and grief, family secrets and how a tragic event can force you to be honest about who you really are. You'll want to inhale it in one breath.” Easy Living (UK)
“Rayner is a swift, efficient plotter, nudging her characters towards the light of congruence and self-reliance. Her Brighton is carefully and affectionately mapped, and her account of the gruelling rituals a death involves is deftly done.” The London Times Literary Supplement
Library Journal
One Monday morning a man dies suddenly on a commuter train from Brighton to London, and the lives of three passengers are changed forever. Traveling with the man are his wife, Karen; Lou, a stranger who observes his death; and Karen's best friend, Anna, in another car. Anna and Lou are thrown together by chance as they share a taxi to try to make it to their jobs on time. The three women find their lives intertwining as they give one another the strength to make their way through grief and find the courage to deal honestly with personal issues they had been avoiding. VERDICT Rayner's (The Other Half; Getting Even) well-written third novel, which sold over 200,000 copies in Britain, will draw in readers with its dramatic opening and keep them engaged in its fully fleshed-out characters as the story progresses. Fans of women's fiction dealing with friendship and overcoming loss will appreciate discovering a new author.—Karen Core, Detroit P.L.
Kirkus Reviews
The lives of three women are altered when a man dies on a commuter train. Lou is paying little attention to the people around her; after all, she makes the trip from Brighton to London every morning. But then suddenly the man across from her is having a heart attack. His wife Karen is begging for help, but it's too late. Everyone is asked to exit the train, and Lou shares a cab the rest of the way to London with fellow traveler Anna. The two strangers commiserate over the tragic event when Anna's cell rings--it's her best friend Karen, in shock at the sudden death of her husband Simon on that very same train. Anna returns to Brighton to comfort Karen as Lou goes to work as a youth counselor. The novel spans the ensuing week, as Karen prepares for Simon's funeral and Anna and Lou, in their own ways, reevaluate their lives with this ever-so-sharp reminder of their mortality. Anna is a successful copywriter, but her home life is a mess--boyfriend Steve is a mean drunk, but she can't imagine life without him. Lou lives a happy lesbian life in gay-friendly Brighton, but she hasn't come out to her overbearing mum, and the secret is killing her. Meanwhile, Karen and her two young children are barely coping now that their family is broken. Anna supports Karen, and Lou with her counseling experience is there for them both. The novel's strength--facing head-on the minutia of coping with a death--is also one of its failings when it occasionally reads like a self-help book. Sitting with the body in hospital, explaining to children about saying goodbye, how to reach out to friends and banish guilt--a week's worth of it gets a bit too much. Nevertheless, Rayner never shies away from her character's misery and ineptitude in dealing with the worst, offering a welcome dose of reality in the literature of female bonding. Affectionately drawn characters lift a morose topic into a companionable light.
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