Resurrection in May

Samson, Lisa. Resurrection in May. Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010.

Claudius, a farmer in Kentucky, picks up a stray girl on the side of the road one day. Her name is May, and she chooses to spend time helping him out on his farm until her trip to Rwanda. While May is in Rwanda, the hostilities between the Hutus and the Tutsis escalate and she faces horrors she never could have imagined before. She returns the United States, scarred physically and emotionally.

May finds a home on Claudius's farm once again, and begins a correspondence with an old friend, a friend who is now on death row and has refused to appeal his case. While May encourages Eli to reconsider appealing his case, Eli encourages May to embrace life and to stop hiding on the farm.

This book had a rather slow start, and I was concerned that I would not be able to finish it. I tell my students to give books a "100-page test," so I continued to read. This book passed the 100-page test. I became very interested in the story once May returned to the United States and began to deal with her traumas. Although I have never experienced anything as traumatic as what May went through, I can understand her desire to hide and forget. I appreciated her eventual embrace of life, as she said that, "You can outdistance that which is running after you, but not what is running inside you."

May does eventually face her demons and also finds a way to help Eli face his. This book was worth the time spent reading it.

I received a complimentary copy of this book for the purposes of review.