A Terrible Kindness: The Bestselling Richard and Judy Book Club Pick

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THIS remarkable debut novel starts in a slightly bizarre location, and in the shadow of a cataclysmic event. It’s the Ladies’ Night Dinner Dance for the Midlands Chapter of the Institute of Embalmers in 1966. William Lavery, 19, has graduated as the youngest embalmer in the country, and the first student to achieve full marks in every area of study. He is sitting at a linen-covered table with his first love, Gloria, and is about to be congratulated in public by the Institute’s President.

whilst his mum summed it up with ‘What a terrible mess we can make of our lives. There should be angel police to stop us at these dangerous moments, but there don’t seem to be. So all we’re left with, my precious son, is whether we can forgive, be forgiven, and keep trying our best.’ After the powerful beginning, we spend the rest of the book moving between William's past at boarding school and the present where something has happened to make him estranged from his mum. I did not find William's boarding school/choir boy adventures particularly interesting, so I was reading on only for the something that is teased throughout.

Although he comes from an undertaking family, that he would train as an embalmer was never a given. A gifted singer with a stunning voice, William knew his mother was fiercely determined that he should follow a musical career. Exactly what his father had wanted for him was never stated before his premature death when William was just eight. My sister climbed into the incinerator once. Her trousers were never the same again.’ Photograph: Sebastian Nevols/The Guardian

Myfanwy is a song about unrequited love, while Miserere explores penitence and the hope of a new life. What do these pieces signify and what part do they play in the narrative? In 1966, a colliery spoil tip above the Welsh village of Aberfan collapsed; 116 children and 28 adults were killed when the village was buried under a wave of slurry. Jo Browning Wroe’s debut novel, A Terrible Kindness, purports to be the story of a young embalmer who attends the disaster. The first thing to say is that it resolutely isn’t: it is, in fact, the kind of novel I used to enjoy reading off my grandparents’ shelves, a domestic saga about a young man struggling to overcome his childhood while joining the family business. I don’t even know where to start with this review. I feel so emotional and afraid that I will never to able to praise this book enough. I was nine years old when the Aberfan disaster happened. It was one of those moments in time that no one could ever forget. So to conjure up that era just came naturally, how people dressed, talked and the taboos of that time. There are moments when William takes solace — and paradoxically finds kindness — in the presence of the deceased. Taking care of them with tenderness and precision is an act that can’t be lost in translation. Their tacit acceptance of this compassion — his sense that he is doing good — confers healing to him.

Church Times/RSCM:

In washing away the coal-waste-assault, preparing the little bodies for burial, and helping the bereaved identify their kin, he and his fellow volunteers brought their unique skills to carry out the services that ‘no-one wanted to need’. Besides, brilliant unforgettable characters, the plot moves along at a good pace. I thought shifting between the past and present worked very well. I interviewed two of the embalmers who'd been there at length,’ said Jo. ‘They told me their stories in great detail with great feeling. Their story was linked to going into Aberfan, and helping, and then leaving again.’