Maureen Lang’s THE OAK LEAVES

Reviewed by Marion Kelley Bullock

Maureen Lang’s The Oak Leaves is a dynamic tale, told with warmth and honesty. Talie Ingram has a loving husband, a year-old child and another on the way. She finds the journal of Cosima Escott, her great-great-great grandmother and begins reading it for pure entertainment. Entertainment soon turns to horror, as she discovers family secrets that shake her world. Secrets that have the potential to impact her beloved son, Ben, as well as her unborn child.

As Lang weaves the dual story lines throughout the book, I’m held spellbound, wondering what will happen next and how each heroine will cope. Lang makes me feel a mother’s emotions as she shares intimate glimpses into the mental anguish experienced by the parents of a child others see as “different.”

It’s Cosima’s determination and faith that inspire Talie to reconcile her son’s diagnosis of Fragile X Syndrome (a disability Lang’s own son suffers from) with her belief that God is merciful.

This book is a beautiful example, in two generations, of the power of love and the knowledge that every person is precious in God’s sight.