Leslie A. Rasmussen’s WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE follows the story of Carla Weiss and her three daughters, whom she raised as a single mother. She has always told them that her husband left her when he found out she was pregnant with her third girl, Abby, and that he died soon after. As they grew up, each girl struggled with their situation in a different way. The eldest, Morgan, fell into alcoholism and has since fought hard to regain and maintain her sobriety. Charlotte, the middle sister, is in a suffocating relationship with Rick, who uses her without giving much in return. Abby married young and has four children; though she loves her husband and kids dearly, she feels that she has lost essential parts of her identity. When Carla unexpectedly commits suicide, all three daughters get together to find out why—and discover not only the secrets their mother was keeping, but the strength to make needed changes in their own lives.

Despite the tragedy at its heart, WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE is a warmhearted and ultimately forgiving book in which the sins of the past are treated with gentleness and grace. The sisters bicker amusingly throughout, but they clearly love each other dearly and boost each other in touching ways as each battles their own inner demons. There are moments when each of them falters and might have gone back to damaging habits, if not for the thought of their loved ones. In the end, family support is the framework on which each of them structures their particular recovery. Carla’s loss is partly due to her inability to tell her children the truth. Even though they at least believe they would have forgiven her and would never have abandoned her, she doesn’t realize that their love for her is as deep and forgiving as her love for them. After reading her mother’s final emails, Morgan thinks to herself, “If no one gave me a second chance, where would I be?…What were you so worried about?”

In some respects, the book is unrealistically forgiving; there’s a lot of pain here underneath the surface that would normally manifest as anger, or at least resentment, and that isn’t addressed as deeply as it might be. It’s as if the author was afraid to let her characters’ wounds go too deep. But all told, this is a gentle and loving story about a family coming together and finding new strength after a horrible loss.

A heartwarming and life-affirming novel, Leslie A. Rasmussen’s WHEN PEOPLE LEAVE deals tenderly with issues like suicide, addiction, parental loss, and family trauma.

~Catherine Langrehr for IndieReader