After the Leaves Fall, by Nicole Baart

I stumbled across author Nicole Baart's blog, Girls in White at the end of 2010 and after a bit of reading was thoroughly captured by the stories she was weaving and just had to get a copy of her debut novel, After the Leaves Fall (Tyndale, 2007).

 

Nicole lives in Iowa, USA with her husband and sons.  She has written four novels, including two sequels to After the Leaves Fall.  Her follow-up novel, Summer Snow, was a finalist in the 2009 Christy Awards and her most recent novel Beneath the Night Tree, has just been released.

I have read copious amounts of Christian non-fiction but until very recently, I have not been a reader of Christian fiction.  I honestly did not realise how vast the collection of Christian novels on offer was!  And this novel is certainly able to compete with the contemporary secular novels.

After the Leaves Fall follows Julia DeSmit as she grows into a young woman, from the point her mother leaves her as a young girl and later through her father's death, on to her time at college.  The story explores the choices Julia faces and exposes her heart in such a way that I was left empathising deeply with this teenager and loving her inspite of herself. 

I saw so much of my own teenage years in Julia: the angst, the desperation to fit, the longing for love and acceptance.  I was left with a nostaligic desire to experience my teenage years again, but the absolute relief that I had escaped that era of my life and the realisation that my kids will soon enough be heading for those choices.  This made this book so realistic and so thought provoking.  The themes of grace and redemption are obvious throughout the story and Julia's discovery of her spirituality is not forced but rather seems part of her development.

I could not put this book down and as I was reading it on my commute to work, was repeatedly frustrated at having to wait at least eight hours for the next instalment!

Nicole's debut is beautifully written, with such clarity and senstitivity.  I would recommend this book and this author without reservation and with a huge amount of insistence that you immediately order a copy!