The Crying Tree, by Naseem Rakha

I finished Naseem Rakha's highly-acclaimed novel, The Crying Tree, a couple weeks ago, but needed to process for a bit before I felt ready to write a review.

Although the enthusiastic recommendations of the Backspace community certainly helped, it was the premise of the book that drew me. For the past six years or so, I have been very interested in the concept and practice of forgiveness and reconciliation, especially how that applies in the most severe situations and particularly capital punishment. Ms Rakha treats this particular challenge beautifully.

Though this review is of Ms Rakha's book, I should mention two others that were the catalysts for my journey into a study of forgiveness and reconciliation: Why Forgive, by Johann Christoph Arnold, and Perry Yoder's treatise and word study on the Hebrew word and concept of Shalom. It should be no surprise that when I began this walk, it was anabaptists that mentored me.

The Crying Tree is the story of a mother's journey from despair after her only son's murder to forgiveness and even reconciliation with his murderer. That's a pretty short plot synopsis which does little justice to the story, and as I write this with my own son sitting on my lap the story's power returns to my heart.

Rakha has spent a lot of time in the prison system as a journalist, and her in-depth knowledge shows in the writing, but the storyline itself doesn't depend on the details but on the participants, particularly the emotional journey that Irene (the mother) follows. It's a journey in which I found myself entering and participating, all the time asking, "How could I forgive?"

I won't spoil the ending, but even the trailers will tell you that the primary conflicts presented involve not only her own challenges of forgiving and reconciling with her son's murderer, but the crises which arise among her friends, family, and community as she walks this path. One aspect that might raise the ire of religious readers is the caricature of her priest and other religious characters. On the other hand, those readers might instead take to heart that whether the depiction is correct or not, it is how much of the world views them.

As I followed Irene, it became obvious that it wasn't only the killer with whom she needed to reconcile, but also the vast array of other people involved in the tragedy. One of these people was herself, and as she comes to a clearer realization of the circumstances leading to her son's death, Irene arrives to a point where she must also forgive herself.

This leads to perhaps the greatest disappointment - that despite achieving reconciliation with her son's murderer, she doesn't reach this level with many others. In that aspect, Ms Rakha skillfully illustrates one of the great real-world tragedies of this life.

The Crying Tree, by Naseem Rakha

Broadway Books, 2009

www.naseemrakha.com