March 2021
ASIN : B08PCX4K5X
About:
Paula is a dedicated suburban GP, who is devastated by the murder of a friend and her children by their estranged husband and father. Stacey and the children had been staying with her after fleeing his control, and Paula is haunted by the thought that she couldn’t protect them when they most needed it. How had she missed the warning signs? How had she failed to keep them safe?
Not long after, a patient with suspicious injuries brings her anxious young son into Paula’s surgery. The woman admits that her husband hurts her, but she’s terrified to leave for fear of escalating the violence, and defeated by the consistent failures of the law to help her.
Can Paula go against everything she believes to make sure one woman is saved, one child spared? She isn’t motivated by revenge. She’s desperately trying to prevent a tragedy . . .
A riveting, provocative novel about women’s fury, traumatic grief, new love, deep friendship, and the preciousness of life, The Family Doctor asks the questions: Should you cling to faith in a flawed system, or take control the only way you can? Can a good person justify taking a life to save a life?
‘Mesmerising and heart-breaking. A perfect story for this moment in time.’ Sarah Bailey, author of Where the Dead Go
‘The Family Doctor brings urgent news, taking the reader into suburban battlegrounds kept private by the threat and actuality of violence. In crystal-clear prose, Debra Oswald unveils an all-too-believable world of love and loyalty stretched to the limit, with agonising consequences when the best people are forced to do the worst things. When is it justified to fight fire with fire? The moment you finish this novel you will want to find someone else who has read it and talk all night about the vital questions it raises.’ Malcolm Knox, author of Bluebird
‘The Family Doctor is a compelling thriller – fast-paced, gripping and frightening. But is more than that because it is a story that draws desperately needed attention to domestic abuse in this country, to institutional indifference, to the devaluing of women’s lives. The Family Doctor is a cry for change.’
Sofie Laguna, Miles Franklin Award-winning author of The Eye of the Sheep and Infinite Splendours.
Review:
I was lent this book by a friend having never heard of the author or book before. Admittedly when my friend said it was a book called ‘The Family Doctor’ I thought she was lending me a medical book.
Debra Oswald takes her readers on a graphic journey of domestic violence/abuse in its most brutal form. Whilst compelling to read, she pulls no punches (no pun intended) and in raw detail a picture of real anger and helplessness emerges.
