Fingerprints Of God
The Girl At The End Of The Road by K.A. Hitchins is a powerful contemporary novel about life, our motivations and priorities. It is a beautiful read about friendship and being true to ourselves.
Too often life is a performance. We play a role to fit in, adapting to different circumstances. What happens when the role we are playing no longer exists? When it is time for total honesty, only to discover that we do not like the person we have become?
The novel is about identity. “What was I without my work?” Our identity is not to be found in our job. Our identity is to be found in knowing whose we are. “You are more than the things you own and the job you do.” Our core values are important. We need to examine our motivations.
What makes us happy? The story debunks the myth and “the lie the more money you have the happier you’ll be.” Money should never be our king. It brings choice and can do a lot of good but should never be put on the throne. Happiness comes with accepting who we are.
It is the simple things in life that will satisfy – a country walk, the love of your dog, time spent with a good friend. Life continually chasing ‘more’ will never satisfy. “The only escape was to refill my life with… money, sex, the admiration of my peers.” A life built on this foundation is shifting sand, sooner or later it will crumble.
Family is important. We cannot buy the love of a good family. The relationships shown with an elderly relative with dementia is beautifully portrayed.
Having worked for many years with teens with autism, it was refreshing to find a novel with characters having autism. They were honestly and realistically portrayed, enabling me to feel at home in the story. Celebrating differences instead of making others conform.
K.A. Hitchins has written a wonderful tale in the first person, with the result that I placed myself firmly in the action and ‘saw’ all the events. I loved the development of the main character.
The novel also prompts the reader to examine their own lives – do we live self centred, worldly closed fisted lives? Or are open handed, generous and focused on others?
K.A. Hitchins writes excellent stories of depth which always leave this reader wanting more, more, more please K.A. Hitchins.
JULIA WILSON