One Last Time by Helga Flatland

Happy Friday! Today I'm a stop on the Random Things tour for Helga Flatland's One Last Time. 

Anne has been on her own for a while. A mother of two children, she had to learn early on to be strong and self-sufficient after her husband suffered a series of strokes that left him debilitated. Now her children are grown and her husband lives in a home with constant professional care. 

And Anne has just been diagnosed with cancer. 

Sigrid has always had a complicated relationship with her mother. And now she has a complicated relationship with her own daughter, Mia. But Anne's diagnosis changes things. 

Told from both Anne and Sigrid's perspectives, One Last Time is a story about life and relationships—specifically relationships between mothers and daughters. 

Sigrid has held on to a lot of heartache over the years. She blames her mother for things, a lot of them stemming from her mother's caring for her husband, Sigrid's ill father. Interestingly, she remembers things differently than Anne, which is part of the trouble between them. 

Meanwhile, Sigrid, who had her daughter very young, is faced with her daughter about to start college and reuniting with her birth father. The newly forming relationship between daughter and dad is one that strains the entire family. 

The parallels between Sigrid and Anne's experiences and the differences in the way they recall and latch on to parts of their own shared story and experience make this book so utterly real. 

Anne's diagnosis, rather than being the main focus of the book exclusively, is the driving force that brings the three generations of women together. It's the thing that finally makes them confront some of the issues that have been weighing over them for so long. And it's easy to see, as a reader, parallels in our own lives as well even if we haven't experienced exactly the same things as Anne, Sigrid, and Mia have. 

Helga Flatland's book is at times heart wrenching, but it's also eye opening in that it might make you reevaluate some of your own feelings about family. 

One Last Time is out now in the UK and will be out in the US in October from the fabulous folks over at Orenda!