My Thoughts
About the AuthorAbout the bookAnd with a modest lottery win, small miracles do start to happen. I really liked this portrayal of the religious community, not as one with strong fundamental beliefs they wanted to impose on others (although Sister Cecilia comes close to this at times) but as people who genuinely wanted to help others and do the best for their community. There was a bit of a ripple effect, as what happens after the lottery win has many knock-on effects and touches many people’s lives for the better. I found George’s story particularly touching.Anne Booth has had all sorts of jobs, including washing up in a restaurant, working as a tour guide in a haunted almshouse, bookselling, teaching English in Italy, lecturing at university and being a long-term carer for her elderly parents. She has published 23 children’s books and Small Miracles is her first novel for adults. All her childhood and teenage years she wanted to be a nun, and although she has ended up happily married with four children, she still feels inspired by the many kind nuns and religious Sisters she has met.
Three nuns play the lottery to save their failing convent, resulting in a story of friendship, community, faith and love.
Small Miracles is a lovely book with a really cosy feel-good vibe. The sisters of Saint Philomena are doing their best to keep their convent running despite it needing extensive and expensive repairs and really needing more sisters too. They are lacking a sense of purpose since the girls’ school they used to be involved with recently merged to become co-educational and their services are no longer required. I would say they felt a bit adrift and unsure what God wanted them to do. A miracle was needed.
That is, until ninety-year-old Cecilia decides to play the newly launched National Lottery and a series of small miracles begins to unfold…
With Small Miracles featuring nuns, it’s certainly easy to say that if you like Call the Midwife you will enjoy this. You probably will though, as it has the same themes of community, friendship, kindness and love. It’s a heart-warming, charming read with a few secrets and surprises along the way and a cast of quirky and lovable characters. It really shows that small miracles happen all around and often in the most unexpected ways.
Small Miracles takes the reader on a joyful and uplifting journey as these three unforgettable nuns learn more about life, love and friendship than they could ever have imagined.
My thanks to the publisher for my review copy through Netgalley. Small Miracles is published by
Vintage Digital/Harvill Secker and available now in ebook, hardback and audiobook formats.
The 1990s are proving tough for the convent. The order of the Sisters of Saint Philomena is down to its three last nuns. The place that Sisters Margaret, Bridget and Cecilia call home is in dire need of repairs and, with no savings and no new recruits, they are facing the prospect of having to sell up and leave behind the friends and neighbours in the parish community that they love.
