Written by Mark Haysom

Highly
Recommended ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Published by	Piatkus (17 Nov. 2015)
Genre	Contemporary Fiction
Pages	24
ASIN	B0179WBTEW

I downloaded a free digital copy of Oscar Oliver's Christmas in November 2018 and promptly forgot about it until I rediscovered it whilst looking through the oldest books in my TBR pile.

The blurb:

Heart wrenching and heart warming, this is a beautifully told short story that sees the festive season in a different light.

Visit Mark's website at: http://mark-haysom.co.uk/ to read an extract from the opening of Imagine and to read about Mark's other work, including Love, Love Me Do, which is available now in print and ebook.

Short Story contemporary fiction

My thoughts:

I think I must have been swayed by the delightful snowman cover and glossed over the blurb when I added Oscar Oliver's Christmas to my collection of e-books. I certainly was unprepared for the depth of emotion it provoked in me today. I was barely half-way through and realised I was crying for Oscar's situation. It wasn't just his tenth Christmas that he would be facing without his mother, but this was the first occasion since her death when he would feel her loss the most. Everything had changed, and Christmas as well as every other celebration to come would know the miss of Cathy Oliver.

How Oscar honours his mother's memory, keeping her Christmas tradition of sending cards to the neighbours, and is rewarded with a happier Christmas than he'd expected, is movingly and brilliantly told in this short story.

N.B. I so enjoyed Oscar Oliver's Christmas that I downloaded four more free titles: The Gift; The Test; Close Your Eyes and Count to Three; A Song to the Sea. I don't expect these will sit unread for too long in my TBR pile.