Guest Post: Isla Morley, Author of Come Sunday

Today I am thrilled to welcome Isla Morley to Diary of an Eccentric.  Isla is the author of Come Sunday (read my review), a novel about a woman grieving the death of her young daughter and finding herself again.  Abbe’s friendship with Jenny plays an important role in her healing, and Isla is here to talk about the power of friendship.

Please give a warm welcome to Isla Morley:

When I tell people we recently moved from Hawaii, I get groans of commiseration.  I tell them we lived in Honolulu for seven years before the Bishop appointed my husband to a church in the San Gabriel Valley, and the groans only get louder.  Poor you, they say.  Invariably, I get to hear about the cruises they took around the islands, the luau, the bathwater-warm ocean.  They expect me to miss the same things they do.  It’s a beautiful place and the spirit of aloha is not just hype, but it’s not these things I miss.  I miss my friends.

Since my college days, it’s been rare that I formed the kind of bond that blurs the line between friend and sibling.  But in Hawaii, in a matter of months after relocating there, I’d found three “sisters.”  We met at church but it was at my house on the hill or at the hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant on King Street that our little community grew close.  Because we are each from a different part of the world, it’s like a mini-United Nations whenever we gather.  Occasionally, one of our husbands suggests that these are nothing more than marathon gossip sessions, but we are quick to disagree.  “Solving the world’s problems” is what we call it.

Whenever we get together, it looks something like this.  Samiana, the Tongan, stakes out the best seat at the dining room table, opens her laptop and monopolizes the wine.  She goes online and interrupts the flow of conversation in the kitchen with news flashes, usually about some politician’s infidelity.  Ranjini, who was raised in Singapore, is a pediatrician and walks around with a spray bottle of disinfectant inspecting my kitchen surfaces.  She never gets tired of me asking her health-related questions.  “I found a mole under my arm the other day, Jini.  Here, see?  Do you think I should be worried?”

Helena, from a little archipelago called The Seychelles, starts chopping veggies for the Masala curry, and clangs pots and pans around to let everyone know that she is the only one doing any work around here.  She’ll occasionally glance over at Samiana, notice the level of wine in the bottle, and give a loud, “Hmph!” of disapproval.

Eventually the food is ready and when the doctor is satisfied that we’ve all washed our hands enough times, we eat.  Feast, really.  I look around the table and I never get tired of the sight.  Each of my friends is a different color than me, and I marvel how a white girl who grew up in apartheid South Africa got so lucky.

Between us now is a great big ocean.  But that is a small thing compared to what we’ve been through together; a puddle, really when you consider all the wonderful times yet ahead.  These women inspired much of Come Sunday, and although the story centers on a terrible tragedy, it is really a testimony to the power of friendship.  We can endure anything when we endure it together.

Thanks, Isla!  I wish you much success and look forward to reading more of your work in the future.

Courtesy of the publisher, I have 1 copy of Come Sunday to offer to my readers.  Because the publisher is shipping the book, this giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada addresses only.

To enter, leave me a comment with your e-mail address and tell me a little about your best friend(s).  This giveaway will close on Sunday, Sept. 12, 2010, at 11:59 pm EST.  The winner will be chosen randomly.

**Please note that this giveaway is now closed**

Disclosure: I am an Amazon associate.

© 2010 Anna Horner of Diary of an Eccentric. All Rights Reserved. Please do not reproduce or republish content without permission.