A Song for Issy Bradley

First published 2014

Desmond Elliott 2015 · Shortlist

“The six members of the Bradley family have always been close. But in the wake of a tragedy that leaves a hole in the very center of their lives, they suddenly find themselves coming apart. Claire, a convert to the Mormon faith, is so shattered by what’s happened that she can’t even bring herself to get out of bed. Her husband, Ian, however is more secure in his belief that everything happens for a reason. As a bishop in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, he’s utterly consumed with ministering to his congregation, even as his family falls to pieces all around him.

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Zippy, seventeen and 100% sure she’s on the path to righteousness, struggles to balance the demands of the church and the attentions of a boy. Al, fourteen, chafes at his father’s platitudes and skips school to play soccer in the park with his friends. And last but not least, Jacob, seven, is working on resurrecting his goldfish in the hopes of performing a much larger miracle, one that might put everyone in his family back in their right place.