I've found this a very difficult book to review because there were bits I did enjoy and bits I disliked. His work that night will force him to think about the little boy he was, and the losses he has worked so hard to forget. There is a part of the story withheld from the reader concerning a solo, and when it is eventually told, the reveal is underwhelming. I felt the novel would have benefitted by dealing with the Aberfan disaster more sensitively by integrating it into the rest of the novel, rather than putting it aside until the end of the novel, when the aftermath and subsequent inquiry had such a big impact on the UK at the time.

It's about a boy growing up, adults who make mistakes, and how there's always life worth living on the other side of it all. The story had real potential and for a debut novel it is good, but in my opinion it didn't quite work. Frankly, it feels a little tasteless – a tragedy bolted on to a conventional 1960s family saga, written and published half a century later. William and others help prepare the bodies for burial, but the experience leaves him traumatised and determined never to become a parent, for fear of facing the same loss. I’ve read reviews criticising the author for using a true life tragedy as the basis for a book, and I can imagine if you live in Wales it must still be awful to think about it, but the whole plot of the book is about William’s PTSD and perhaps a fictitious event of that magnitude wouldn’t be believable?In general I found William a difficult main character to warm to and some events difficult to wrap my head around. I felt rifts were added between people in the family to keep the story interesting, but really the only purpose they served was to help everything to wrap up nicely by the end of the book. Already scarred by the early loss of his father, a difficult relationship with his mother and a devastating event in his teens, William feels most comfortable with the dead, but through the patience and kindness of those who love him, perhaps he can let go of the past and embrace life. The occasion is interrupted by an appeal from Aberfan for help after the unspeakable disaster which overwhelmed the primary school and many homes and William volunteers.

I would recommend this book to all - although it is historical fiction I believe it would suit those who prefer a more contemporary read too. Homophobia is rampant in the 1960s and it is evident that this must be the main reason why Evelyn (William’s mother) dislikes Robert and Howard and is afraid of their influence on her son.The abrupt engulfing of a Welsh mining village school under a tide of liquid black filth back in the 1960s endures as a particular piece of ghastly British heritage. And what caused the break with his widowed mother, who seems to have an intense dislike to his father’s surviving identical twin Robert and his life partner, Howard? I did not find William's boarding school/choir boy adventures particularly interesting, so I was reading on only for the something that is teased throughout. Not a fluffy one, no, but a real and raw positive story for real life people and complexity of feeling.

I was hoping this story would bring a greater understanding of Aberfan, both the disaster itself and the rebuilding of lives afterwards. So, from the very beginning, we are aware that William has an unusual job but also that he does it well and that he is a kind, thoughtful young man, who wishes to give the victims, and their families, respect and to do his tasks with care. This book featured in the 2022 version of the influential annual Observer Best Debut Novelist feature (past years have included Natasha Brown, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Douglas Stuart, Sally Rooney and Gail Honeyman among many others) and was also picked out by the New Statesman (and others) as one of the most anticipated debuts of 2022. I found it difficult to read at first but the story moves away so quickly I found it wasn’t really a book about the disaster at all.When a book makes me cry within the first chapter… it just… gahh… I don’t think I will be able to properly convey just how stunning A Terrible Kindness is. Time to clamp his defences back down before the flotsam and jetsam of his own life is washed up by the tidal wave of Aberfan’s grief; his father’s death, the abrupt end to his chorister days, the rift with his mother, with Martin. What exactly happens is only revealed towards the book’s end, but it leads to William breaking all ties with his mother to the despair even of those more directly impacted by the incident (William’s Uncle Robert and William's closest Cambridge friend Martin).

But compassion can have surprising consequences, because - as William discovers - giving so much to others can sometimes help us heal ourselves.A Terrible Kindness was inspired by conversations I had with two embalmers, by then in their 70’s, who as young men had gone in 1966 as volunteers to the Aberfan disaster, when a mining waste tip, loosened by rain had careered down the Welsh mountainside and onto a small village primary school. There’s a great cast of characters - I liked kindly uncle Robert and jolly irreverent school friend Martin, and admired Gloria who bravely put up with William’s sometimes awful behaviour. Mentally scarred by Aberfan, William Lavery tries, unsuccessfully, to break up with his girlfriend Gloria, and tells her he will never want to have children. Browning Wroe easily evokes both setting and era with gorgeous descriptive prose and popular culture references.