Once again, Patti Lacy writes a book that shows she is a writer's writer. She never takes on small challenges, and in her latest novel, Reclaiming Lily, she mines the rich veins of story involving a family whose foreign adoption involves intrigue and heart-wrenching drama.
The layers to this story come down one atop the other, turning this way and that until they're woven tighter than a grass tatami mat. There's the adoption from China seen both from the side of the woman whose heart has long ached for a child, and through the eyes of the child's older sister who hoped to reclaim her sibling from the orphanage and bring her back to her birth family. Finally, it's seen through the eyes of the teenager who remembers the loss, abandonment, fear, hatred, and displacement she struggled through.
Reclaiming Lily speaks to the tragedies of civil unrest, culture clashes, self-mutilation, teenage rebellion, and of the devastating effects of genetic disease. Ultimately, it's a story that weaves the faith factor in so realistically, I couldn't help but be moved.
Ms. Lacy brings about a huge twist in the plot eventually that provides a superb "Ah-ha!" moment, and the ending is both dramatic and satisfying. It's definitely women's fiction worth reading. It will stay with you.
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