Vroege RecensentenCaroline Adderson

A village is torn apart by its residents’ inability to communicate, until a little girl shares the gift of punctuation in this humorous illustrated parable.

Chaos reigns in the village of Babble! All day, the residents fight, yell and argue, and no one is heard or understood... until a mysterious little girl arrives and gives the locals something very strange: a full stop. But what is this thing that looks like a freckle or a spot? The villagers don't even know how to ask. However, as the girl begins to share more gifts — a question mark, quotation marks — the residents slowly learn how to communicate. But when more fights arise and disaster strikes, can punctuation truly save the day?

It only takes a moment for your life to be changed forever-as the characters of this darkly comic novel discover early on. The fateful moment for the newlyweds Ross and Iliana comes with the freak automobile accident that leaves Iliana paralyzed, Ross grief-stricken, and both of them struggling to come to terms with a married life nothing like they originally had in mind. As the usually affable Ross struggles with guilt and with finding ways to cope with his newly fractured life, Iliana gets used to her unwelcome existence as a wheelchair-bound wife, to her husband's growing sense of alienation, and to their awkward new lack of intimacy. What ultimately happens with Ross and Iliana is as unexpected and surprising as the fateful mishap that sets the events in motion in the first place. Sitting Practice is a clever and insightful study of love's collision with harsh reality, told by an author with a remarkable instinct for the workings of human nature, a nimble gift for language, and the ability to find humor in the oddest places.