Rain

 

 

  

      

Spanning four decades of life in a small town, Rain follows three generations of an Australian family whose lives are shattered by weakness and loss, and tortured by betrayal. Resonating with truth and revelation, Rain explores the often difficult but enduring ties between parents and their children, the sacrifices, compromises, and rewards as patterns of emotion repeat themselves through generations.

            

   
   Books for children:

   The Glass Table (Book I)
   Shards (Book II)
   A River Somewhere (Book III)

   Other books for adults:

   Being Anti-Social
   


             

  
 

Rain is in four parts. The first part begins in 1965 with the Wallin family patriarch, James, his wife, Millie, and their two daughters, Helena and Grace. James wants the best for his daughters, but in pursuit of the perfect, safe world he wants to create for them, he tends toward controlling. While Helena is a doting, compliant daughter, Grace rebels against the shackles of her small-town existence.    

In Part II, Helena is a single mother with four children, and overwhelmed by the responsibility, especially since her two eldest sons are showing early signs of delinquency. She feels powerless and alone, with a lack of support, and critically, money.  

In Part III, Helena has a different kind of aloneness—her children are gone, as are her parents. She attempts new relationships, but past patterns of abuse repeat themselves. The story begins to follow Helena's only daughter, Carla Baden.

Part IV continues Carla's journey as she marries her beloved Ethan, however the union ends prematurely. Carla now subscribes to her brother's belief in the Baden curse. In search of relief from her loss and life that persists even though Ethan is gone, Carla seeks the solitude of a monastery before volunteering for a humanitarian mission to Angola.