Fiction Pick of the Week: The Prodigal Father

With Father's Day around the corner, we selected this book about a new father:










The Prodigal Fatherby Kara Lynn Russell 2009

I have an interest in how works of fiction portray individuals with disabilities and selected this book as one of the characters is a little girl who has Down syndrome. Kara Lynn Russell is the perfect author to capture such a character as she has a child with Down syndrome herself. What I particularly enjoyed about this book was that unlike many novels, the disability is part of the characters’ lives, but it isn’t actually the main conflict or crisis of the book!

At the centre of this story are the characters Scott and Beth who married very young when she discovered she was pregnant. After losing her baby to miscarriage, Beth became very depressed and her relationship with Scott became so damaged that he eventually left without telling anyone where he would be going. Unbeknownst to him, Beth was already pregnant for a second time with daughter Risa, who was born with Down syndrome. Three years later, Scott returns to town to try to make things work with Beth and discovers he is a father. The novel focuses on the relationship between the characters as they try to decide whether they will be able to make their relationship work. I would characterize this novel as a “cozy” romance, but it might also appeal to those who like Christian themes in fiction, which the title—The Prodigal Father— indicates.