This is obviously meant to be one of those heavily moralistic feel good strategically lachrymose fables, but the final product reads very much like a sort of AA meeting required reading material. The author has clearly put a lot of his soul into this, it has plenty of over the top sincerity and well meaning earnestness, but it doesn’t quite make up for the fact that after years of work and 200 rewrites the book’s quality leaves a lot to be desired. It’s perfectly readable (that and its brevity are really the only things here to recommend itself), but it’s flat, clichéd and trite and it’s flat, clichéd trite characters speak to each other in the trite dialogue straight out of life coaching manuals. Maybe don’t read the next sentence if you’re planning to read the book, but then again I don’t recommend that you do so here it is. The basic plot has to do with a recovering addict and alcoholic who helps out a thieving bum by welcoming him into his cabin to clean up and rest, for which the bum promptly repays him by dying in the night and now the body has to be disposed of, although it ends up being done in a suitably weepy fashion. Meanwhile the main character gets to contemplate his life choices and his loved ones and realize just how good he has it. Yey. That’s it really, not much to it. Just a stilted inexplicably meticulously detailed (down to times, like a freaking itinerary) narrative featuring cheap emotional manipulation and a ten ton moral. And the moral is…be kind to one another. Revelatory, isn’t it. So yeah, do a random act of kindness now and again. I just did one saving you the 75 minutes you might have otherwise spent on this novella. Thanks Netgalley.

Wow! The author's raw honesty made this book one that was hard to not finish in one sitting! I love reading books where the author shows their vulnerable side, as I feel that makes them more relatable to the reader. The relationships in this book were written about in a way that was honest, which I admired. It is hard to write about a relationship knowing that many people are going to read and judge it.

What a powerful story; told with openness and imparting so much love and wonderment in life and the lives of family and friends.
Just a short, well crafted novella it tells the story of a man who continues to fight a previous addiction to booze and drugs. The AA support sessions he regularly attends are so much easier to maintain with the support of friends both firm and loyal. It is when he needs to step outside his routine that he feels isolated and more vulnerable.
However, it is on one such trip outside his comfort zone that he ends up buying 3 bottles of spirits. A decision that will change his life and allow him to see values and appreciate aspects within humanity like kindness.
I love the pace of the writing. The care and positive choice of words in the telling of this wonderful story. I love the positive dimensions of a world you engage with and perceive with non judgemental senses. An uplifting account which would have no resonance unless you identify yourself as those who do not get involved in the seedier aspects of life. We rarely help others without looking for some reward or bragging about it. We give often to receive and seldom with altruism as our motivation.
This beautiful tale reaffirms our humanity at its best where there is little room for self praise, justification or your right to help, justice and life.
Perhaps the worst condition is a unforgiving heart but maybe the experience of others and the shared kindnesses of words in action can address some of difficulties we endure and enlighten us to those we take for granted.
A real gem of a book with profound messages not preached but encompassed within a story of characters we rarely have empathy for but are perhaps a reflection of the people we should be.
When you can do a good thing in secret, keep quiet rather than expect better and preferential treatment and set aside the mantle of status and dress in humility you may just find yourself.