Crying Tree [Paperback]

Naseem Rakha (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Broadway Books; 3rd edition (2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230740847
• ISBN-13: 978-0230740846
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (65 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,883,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Forgive The Unacceptable?, June 12, 2009

By 

W. Easley "Opa" (Colorado Rocky Mountains) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Crying Tree: A Novel (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Your son is shot and killed. The killer is on death row. How do you feel?

The Crying Tree is a story of love, grief, hate and forgiveness. It is a novel with intensity and an exceptional plot line. Crying Tree effectively teaches sacred tenets and values because it relates spiritual growth to life's troubles.

Naseem Rakha's book is about the Stanley family: Nate, Irene, Stephen Joseph (called Shep), and Barbara Ann (called Bliss). The Stanley's, who are from southern Illinois, move to Oregon to take a work promotion for Nate. After a year and a half Shep is shot and killed during a robbery. The loss of Shep fractures the family.

Rakha's tale is explicit and dynamic. The story chronicles the grief and struggle of family and friends after the slaying of its most gentle and loving member. This tale is very personal for me, as my son was killed 12 years ago. I have often wondered if anyone could adequately describe the horror, emotions, and physical reaction of losing a beloved child. I believe Naseem accomplishes that task.

Rakha communicates the feelings, the frustration, and desire for vengeance common in family anguish. Rakha describes the physical symptoms and the illness that results from processing an unspeakable loss. Rakha talks of the depression, the sleeplessness, the fear, and the anger that parents endure after losing their son. Naseem relates the denial and rebellion of a sibling living with the loss of a cherished brother.

The emotional path toward healing is a very tough journey that never really ends. Irene, the main character, discovers that a person must fight the inevitable anger and hate that threatens to destroy her soul. Irene admits that the crime is unacceptable and never can be made acceptable, but she must proceed with her life. As she becomes very withdrawn and filled with pain, she learns that she must process her grief and forgive herself and the killer, or die. Following Irene on her journey, we discover some deep spirituality.

The Crying Tree is an exceptional novel. The plot is intriguing and the characters alive and real. I recommend this book.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IS FORGIVENESS POSSIBLE?, July 27, 2009

By 

Gail Cooke (TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Crying Tree: A Novel (Hardcover)

Debut author Naseem Rakha has penned a touching albeit sad story of a family riven by grief. Her characters are hobbled, not crippled physically but emotionally, sickened by hatred, isolated by an inability to communicate, and driven to find reason for the inexplicable.

Our story opens in 2004 when Tad Mason , Superintendent of the Oregon State Penitentiary, receives notice that after 19 years an execution date has been set for Daniel Robbin. The condemned man had been but 19-years-old himself when he was found guilty of beating and then shooting a 15-year-old boy, Shep Stanley, during an attempted home robbery.

Now, after all this time Robbin has stopped his appeals and it fell to Mason to make sure the execution is carried out properly and promptly. He'd never been in charge of what he referred to as a "procedure" before, and he has no stomach for it. However, it is his job and his career depends upon it being done correctly.

Flashback to the fall of 1983 when Nate Stanley arrives home to tell his wife, Irene, that he has accepted a better job as deputy sheriff in the tiny town of Blaine, Oregon. The family which also consists of their two children, Bliss and Shep, will be relocating immediately. Irene does not want to leave the won in which she grew up, her family and lifelong friends, but she acquiesces and the family moves.

They seem to be adjusting well to their new life when Shep is shot, killed in the family home. Shep's death was inconceivable to her, "There was no way she would let her boy die. He was her life, her breath, her son.....A mother does not let her son die." But Shep is gone.

Mourning may take many forms. Nate becomes stone, quiet, silent. Irene finds release in alcohol and an ever growing hatred for her son's killer. Bliss is left very much to her own resources. Impervious to the pleas of her sister, Carol, to pull herself together Irene sinks lower until she hits rock bottom. It is years later after a heated confrontation with Bliss that she realizes what she has become, and she tries to help herself by writing a letter to Daniel in which she offers forgiveness.

For this reader that is at the heart of Rakha's story - forgiveness. At one point Irene asks Superintendent Mason if he believes in forgiveness. His answer is, "I've heard of it." All of us have and The Crying Tree may cause many of us to redefine forgiveness in our own lives.

- Gail Cooke

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Would you forgive?, May 29, 2009

By 

CathyB - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Crying Tree: A Novel (Hardcover)

Imagine yourself in the early 1970's. A time when bell bottoms, mini skirts and platform shoes ruled the fashion world. The birth of Aerosmith, Kiss and the Ramones took center stage in the music world. A time of political awakening. Now imagine yourself knowing nothing about this and living in an isolated town in Oregon. You are living what appears to be the American dream - married, two kids (one boy, one girl), etc.... But, then tragedy strikes and what you love most in the world is taken from you. Your only son is brutally murdered in your home.

How do you cope? How do you go on living? What kind of a life do you have? Can there be justice? In The Crying Tree, we are witness to one family's struggle to survive. We share their grief and feel their desperation. We observe as they become bitter and frustrated with one another - they become strangers. There is forgiveness. There are secrets. There are sins of commission and sins of omission. When these are brought to the forefront, we see the unbreakable bonds of family surface.

Ms. Rakha is a wonderful story teller. She was able to hold my attention until the end. I wanted to know how things would work out. The characters were sympathetic including the murderer. This is a tragic novel; however, it is also one of love, forgiveness and redemption. I recommend to those searching for a new voice. A good book for book clubs.

Thank you Shelf Awareness and Random House for this copy.