Rain [Kindle Edition]

Leigh K. Cunningham (Author)

Book Description

Winner, Literary Fiction category, 2011 Indie Excellence Awards.
Silver medalist, 2011 Independent Publisher Awards (IPPY), Regional Fiction: Australia/New Zealand.

Set in provincial Australia in the early sixties, Rain is a multigenerational family saga that chronicles the lives of three generations of the Wallin sawmilling dynasty. It explores the often difficult but enduring ties between mothers and daughters, men and women: the sacrifices, compromises, and patterns of emotion that repeat themselves through generations.

In a journey that spans four decades and crosses the globe, Rain is an epic tale of the choices and consequences that comprise one family’s history. By turn dark and amusing, Rain delivers an emotionally charged revelation about love, loss, guilt, self-discovery and redemption. The enduring question of family bonds, escapable or not, divides, conquers, and triumphs.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Leigh Cunningham has crafted an engrossing, well-written and compelling book. Although it is hard to "encapsulate" because there are many themes and story lines, it is a wonderful book that I highly recommend. -- Janet J for Readers Favorite

From the Author

RAIN is a very dark, sad, tragic story, and is based in part on true events. Some readers might find the sadness overwhelming, but in reality some people and families suffer more than their fair share of set-backs and misfortune.

RAIN is also 'literary' fiction, which tends to focus on the subjects of the narrative rather than the plot ie. the focus is on the "inner story" of the characters, their motivations, emotions and introspection. The style of writing in literary fiction tends to be lyrical and layered; the tone is serious, and as mentioned, it is usually darker than para-literary fiction. It is a style of writing that is not for everyone.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 446 KB
• Print Length: 316 pages
• Publisher: Vivante Publishing (March 16, 2011)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004SHNUGC
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #47,041 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Rain: an Intensely Moving Story April 16, 2011

By Ron Fritsch

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Rain, Leigh K. Cunningham's first novel for adult readers, is a page-turning story of three generations in a small-town Australian family during forty turbulent years from 1965 to 2005.

The tale mostly, but not exclusively, revolves around a second-generation mother, Helena, and her third-generation daughter, Carla. Even as they deny they need to, they give their lives to the men and boys who are their fathers, sons, brothers, and lovers--and receive in return enormous grief.

And yet this is no mindless indictment of the male characters. For instance, at the beginning Helena and her sister Grace, heiresses to their father's sawmill business, both favor the physically desirable Michael Baden. He readily returns the interest of the more attractive sister, Grace, to the point of consummating a youthful affair with her.

Grace, however, has her eye on a more glamorous life than Michael can be a part of. A worker in the mill, he's a bastard grandson of the impoverished and physically abused woman who claims to be his mother. He's also a victim of severe playground abuse for nothing more than being who he is.

When Grace leaves for a more worldly existence in Sydney, Michael turns his attention to the "sensible and comfortable" Helena. This reader finds it difficult to blame either of them for what follows.

Abuse--psychological, physical, and sexual--dominates Cunningham's story. And yet all of her characters--no matter how possible it is to say they invite their own grief--are sympathetic. This reader wanted each of them to succeed, even as he grew in his knowledge that most of them wouldn't.

The playground bullies and the gang-rapists of a fourteen-year-old girl in a nighttime cemetery are faceless, as they should be in this kind of story. Nobody has to be convinced those hobgoblins exist, even in fiction that blissfully--in this reader's humble opinion--eschews paranormality.

But what this reader most admires in Rain is Cunningham's unsentimental but intensely moving style of writing. She has no need to tell you when she's touching your heart. You simply feel it.

(Ron Fritsch is the author of Promised Valley Rebellion.)

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Tale of tragedy October 26, 2011

By Shelleyrae TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Paperback

That Rain is set in rural Australia was the main reason I accepted this novel for review from expat author Leigh Cunningham. Sisters Helen and Grace are heiresses to their fathers successful small town sawmill business. While Helen enjoys working with her father, Grace, lively and beautiful, wants more than their country town can offer her and escapes to Sydney to pursue her own success, leaving behind her ambitious boyfriend. Spurned, Michael Baden decides to turn his attention to the plainer Helen but their marriage triggers a chain of misfortune, hardship and grief that echoes through their lifetime.

A saga of generational tragedy, Cunningham chronicles the bleak fate of the Baden family in Rain. It is a stark and discouraging tale at the cycle of family dysfunction as Michael Baden revisits his own childhood damage on his vulnerable wife and children. I found Rain difficult to read at times because the Baden family members suffer so relentlessly from setbacks both of their own making and simply by the vagaries of fate. This is an emotionally charged story that explores many confronting topics including the curse of alcohol and drug addiction, emotional neglect, rape and physical abuse.
The characters evoke both sympathy and dismay as they struggle with the burdens of their heritage. Rain illustrates the inexorable slide of Michael and Helen into a mire of despair causing the disintegration of their good intentions. Despite glimmers of hope and triumph neither can hold onto their successes. Michael undoubtedly triggers and supports the family's failures, his drinking, neglect and general poor behaviour, a legacy that his children are unable to escape. Helen is slowly defeated by her circumstance, her honest efforts to improve her life and that of her children eventually waning in the face of repeated setbacks. The children themselves become victims, largely ill-equipped to break away from their background. It is desperately sad to witness Michael and Helen's children suffer, and sadder still to see those who may break the cycle defeated by external forces they cannot control.

The story progresses in a cohesive manner, spanning as it does four decades. While Rain is an almost brutally tragic tale it is honest and thought provoking. Cunningham obviously has a flair for the dramatic and at times, particularly to begin with, the language is excessively florid but it doesn't dilute the heart-wrenching emotion behind the words. I would have liked a little more shading as the tragedy is almost unrelieved even at the conclusion and while I was compelled to keep reading it was not easy to be exposed to such sustained misery even though the lessons it imparts are important.

An emotionally insightful novel, Rain was the winner of the Literary Fiction category at the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards, and a silver medalist at the 2011 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPY) in the Regional Fiction: Australia/New Zealand category.

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars It's Raining in my Heart March 26, 2011

By Kevin C. Webb

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I have been following the writing career of Leigh K Cunningham closely now for a couple of years. This is her third title and it's quite removed from her first two, which are for children. This is NOT a kids book, this is a sad and sometimes tough book to read. I found it difficult to put down and was readily called back to my Kindle by this haunted family.

Why is life so cruel? How much heartbreak can a family endure? I read this story with my heart placed firmly in my mouth, I have to say it also bled quite profusely as well. This is a very human story and I suspect based on very real people. Thank you Leigh K Cunningham for sharing this wonderful story with us. It will stay with me, as I'm sure it will stay with all that read it.

More About the Author

Leigh K Cunningham is a lawyer with a career as a senior executive for a number of public companies in her home country of Australia. She has master's degrees in law (Master of International Trade & Investment Law) and commerce (Master of Commerce) as well as an MBA (International Management).

BEING ANTI-SOCIAL, Leigh's latest title (May 2012) won gold at the 2012 Readers Favorite book awards in the Chick Lit category,, and was #1 in Comic Fiction on Amazon's bestseller list.

RAIN, Leigh's first title for the adult fiction market (April 2011) was named the winner in the Literary Fiction category at the 2011 Indie Excellence Awards. RAIN was also awarded a silver medal at the 2011 Independent Publisher Awards (IPPY) in the Regional Fiction: Australia/New Zealand category. RAIN was #1 on the Amazon bestseller list for Women's Fiction (December 2011).

Leigh's first two children's books, THE GLASS TABLE and its sequel, SHARDS are recipients of silver medals from the Mom's Choice Awards. SHARDS was also a finalist at the 2011 Indie Excellence Awards in the Juvenile Fiction category.

The third book in THE GLASS TABLE series is in progress, as is a sequel to RAIN.

Connect with Leigh at:

Website: http://www.leighkcunningham.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/leighcunningham

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Leigh-K-Cunningham

Blog: http://www.leighkcunningham.com/blog/