My Hands Came Away Red by Lisa McKay
Christy Award Nominee for 2008
Description:
Description: Cori signs up to take a mission trip to Indonesia during the summer after her senior year of high school. Inspired by happy visions of building churches and seeing beautiful beaches, she gladly escapes her complicated love life back home. Five weeks after their arrival, a sectarian and religious conflict that has been simmering for years flames to life with deadly results on the nearby island of Ambon. Within days, the church building the team had constructed is in ashes, its pastor and fifty villagers are dead, and the six terrified teenagers are stranded in the mountainous jungle with only the pastor's teenage son to guide them to safety. Ultimately, Cori's emotional quest to rediscover hope proves just as arduous as the physical journey home. My Review: This is a powerful book. I can't stop thinking about it. It makes me think all kinds of things, like what would I have done in that situation? How well would I have survived? Reading this book was like receiving a dose of perspective and reminders of what's really important. Faith. Family. Friends. As the teenagers struggle to survive I felt like I was in the jungle with them. I almost wanted to be, in a crazy way, just for the bond they formed and the way that their experience stripped away the unimportant and gave them clarity. Not that I would really want to be starving and sick and afraid for my life. Just that I know how having nothing but hope to hang on to can remind you that there really is nothing but hope to hang on to. Cori describes the events from her first-person perspective and the author captures the characters' nuances and dialogues from Cori's point of view with absolute beauty and clarity. I found myself appreciating the strengths of each character and not wanting them to be apart from each other for the multiplying strength in their togetherness. A beautiful story. One of my favorite lines of the book comes near the end, as Cori is talking to Kyle--one of the other teenages with whom Cori has formed a special bond--and Kyle says, "You know, life's a journey...Some questions get answered later. You can't stop traveling just because that's not now." A powerful thing for him to say in light of all they went through. This will definately be one of my favorite books of the year!
