The Song of Sadie Sparrow

Three women of different ages and spirituality come together at the Hickories retirement facility in this touching novel from Foth-Regner (Heaven Without Her). Eighty-six year-old Sadie Sparrow is beginning a new stage of life as she enters a nursing home. As are Meg Vogel, a 58-year-old widow starting a new career working as a caregiver at the Hickories, and Elise Chapelle, who is facing the loss of the beloved grandfather she has cared for and is starting to contemplate her single life as she approaches 30. As patients and caretakers, the three women meet and begin to learn from each other in unexpected ways. Downtrodden Meg enjoys working at the center and is reinvigorated by the lively, wise Sadie. Atheist Elise reconsiders her faith as she receives Sadie’s end-of-life wisdom. Told from many perspectives and stuffed with tangential stories, the novel’s pace resembles that of a nursing home—slow and somewhat disorienting for the visitor. But for some readers, the eccentricity of the plotting will add to the charm. Foth-Regner often slips into weighty discussions of Christian scripture that resemble Sunday sermons. Christian readers, especially those familiar with nursing homes, will enjoy this emotional, winding novel, but those looking for faster pacing or more plot will be disappointed by the lack of narrative movement. (BookLife)