The Homecoming of Samuel Lake

The Homecoming of Samuel Lake by Jenny Wingfield

On the library stacks: Adult fiction
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher's blurb:

Every first Sunday in June, members of the Moses clan gather for an annual reunion at a sprawling hundred-acre farm in Arkansas. And every year, Samuel Lake, a vibrant and committed young preacher, brings his beloved wife, Willadee Moses, and their three children back for the festivities. In the midst of it all, Samuel and Willadee’s outspoken eleven-year-old daughter, Swan, is a bright light. Her high spirits and fearlessness have alternately seduced and bedeviled three generations of the family. But just as the reunion is getting under way, tragedy strikes, jolting the family to their core and setting the stage for a summer of crisis and profound change.

I really enjoyed this beautiful novel. The characters are complex and full of contradiction. Sometimes character-driven novels languish a little for me, but this one has a nice plot that breezes right through a summer in the 1950s.

This book is a really emotional read. I was totally invested in this family, from spunky Swan Lake, her righteous father, her conflicted grandmother and the variety of aunts, uncles and cousins in between.  The one thing I had a hard time with was the bad guy. He is really, really BAD. You hate him like you are supposed to, but I started to dread when he would show up.

This would make a great choice for book clubs. You can read the first chapter here.

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Source: Purchased