What do You think about Our Father Who Art In A Tree: A Novel (2003)?
Simone, a 10-year-old Australian girl, loses her father to heart disease. Everyone in her family is consumed by grief and her only solace is climbing the huge Poinciana tree in their backyard because she has thought, "If you climbed high enough in the tree in our backyard you came to another world". Her suspicions are confirmed when she hears her father's voice in the highest branches. Simone tells her mother of this discovery and persuades her to climb the tree, where she too spends time with her deceased husband. This situation, however, keeps the family from moving on. The tree grows larger and basically uproots the house itself, and with it, the family. A story about grief, love and moving on. Beautiful and lovely…makes death seem such a part of life. I also loved the cover art…gorgeous. Book #51 of my 2006 Book List, finished reading it on 10-23-06.
—Sherrie
A lovely story about a young family learning how to cope with the loss of their father. It's told from the point of view of the little girl who hears her dead father's voice coming from the large poinciana tree in their garden. Her mother climbs the tree with her and the conversations start...As they talk to him, the tree grows and becomes destructive. The roots grow under the house and destabilise the foundations, as the father hangs on to his family and they refuse to let him go. This is a moving tale, simply told. It explores our feelings of grief and loss when a loved one dies and how we gradually learn to live without them in our day to day lives, but without cutting them completely from our memories. The emotions are raw and ring so true. I liked the way that Judy Pascoe uses the little girl's voice to bring a lightness and naive honesty to the tale. Well worth a read.
—Deb
This is quite a quaint little book that Mark gave me last year and I had not read until now. It is the story of a family struggling to come to terms with the death of their husband and father. The 10yr old hears her father calling to her in the big poinciana tree beside their house and 'discovers'that she can sit up and talk to him. She shares this'gift'with her grief stricken mother believing it to be a comfort only to discover that it torments her mother further. I am always drawn to books on loss and grief and this is a hauntingly real story of death and attempts to continue the bonds with someone you love. The narrators tales of grief are hauntingly real. How the 10yr old narrator experiences grief in great waves that literally make her lose her equilibrium are both tragic and real. Not a book to read if you are sad but still a lovely Australian reflection on loss
—Liz
