This book is a perfect example of why I love my GR buddies- without them I never would have had this on my radar; I never would have known this existed, because let's be honest: that cover is easy to overlook. Don't let the cute cover fool you- this is emotionally draining. But it's worth it.

When she comes to the aid of a friend's young son, she finds herself embroiled in the exposure of a child sex ring. Disbelief, horror,guilt are just some of the emotions she struggles to come to terms with as the legal case against her friend grows.

Reader Reviews

This book was torturous in moments, yet ultimately heartwarming. There is no question that this world is full of evil. We see it in the shootings that seem to be happening on an alarmingly regular basis. We see it in the face of pedophiles. We see it in the face of mothers who kill their children. However, there is also tremendous good. I've never been so taken with a character, than I had with Sarah. Her nurturing and kind spirit toward Jordan ignited my soul. This was one of those books from which you have to recover for a few days before moving on to another. Despite the horribly disturbing and distressing topic (sexual abuse of children, child pornography) this story was told so powerfully, so poignantly that I had a really hard time putting it down (and stayed up until 2:30 this morning to finish it *yawn*). Kittle managed to carefully tiptoe the line between describing just enough and describing too much. It was enough to make me squirm uncomfortably and feel disturbed, aching and saddened for the victims, without making me feel like I was behaving immorally or amorally by reading it. This story made me weep. It terrified me. It made me angry. And it even made me hopeful, which surprised me. The characters were beautifully written, with so much detail and insight. Kittle really knew her characters, and I feel like I know them too because her writing was so genuine! I deeply appreciated reading the evolution of the relationship between the mother Sarah and her son Nate. I loved the way Nate was written, all his hesitations in communicating with his mom, his fears and hopes - it made me feel like I was getting a special little peek inside the brain of a smart, maturing teenage boy like my own son. And Sarah was so real. I can't even begin to describe how powerfully written the character Jordan was. To read his journey and evolution was incredibly moving and emotional. Each character had such a strong role and life for that matter. I was impressed with who they were and who they became. I actually had these crazy sensations under my skin when I read parts of the book. It's always so hard to hear or read a child struggling. It just doesn't seem fair.

It was oddly structured. The first chapter consists of a gentle moan at the change in culture at the BBC - from a slightly laissez-faire attitude when she first started working for the corporation to the current mode of professionalism and accountability. Post-Saville, one thinks 'Thank Goodness" and cringes slightly. If this were republished today, I'd certainly make sure this wasn't the opening chapter.Travel is supposed to be challenging, you are out of your comfort zone, you are in unfamiliar places, often surrounded by people who don’t speak the same language as you and have a very different culture. It can pay rich dividends and give you an insight into how people live and how different it is to your way of life. These places that you see, the sunsets that you watch and the interactions that you have with other people, shape who you are. The problem with this doctrine is that it can’t possibly be the whole, or even the most significant, part of the story. While our passions undoubtedly influence our behavior, our ideas, driven by reason, have altered human behavior more drastically over the last 10,000 years—and especially over the last 300 to 400 years—than can be accounted for by any changes in our biological makeup. A welcome contrast to the last book I read (The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich), the Kindness of Strangers lays out a history of humanity’s gradual cultural movement towards kindness and towards altruism. Without beating you over the head with it, the overall sentiment is that kindness works because it benefits individuals and society and ultimately makes for the things we all want in the world: peace and prosperity. McCullough seems to lay out an argument that modern globalism is an extension of understanding your neighbors, that since we are so much more aware of each other it is incumbent upon all people to show global compassion as an inevitable next step in our “kindness evolution”. I guess we need more Nate's in the world to convince us we have enough to give, Danny's to not hold a grudge and forgive and Sarah's to have patience and well, be the mom.

The Kindness of Strangers: Child Abandonment in Western Europe from Late Antiquity to the Renaissance, a 1988 book by John BoswellI've read many books about group selection and why cooperation developed via altruism within tribes, but this book shed new light on the topics. McCullough also details the interesting history of social work and social services, which I was unaware of prior to reading the book. It’s very much a typical American style narrative - with the locals portrayed as quite some weirdos, or bizarre people. No offence to any Americans though. It’s just that I’ve observed Europeans to not be so self-centered and they don’t talk about locals like they’re those weird strangers. While this was a difficult book to read at times, I'm not at all sorry that I did. Sometimes the best stories make us uncomfortable, but ultimately enable us to grow as readers and as humans. This was one of the special ones. I really love short stories, and I have read short story anthologies in the past, but I struggled a little with this one because the stories were so short. Any time I start a story, it takes a while to wrap my mind around the setting, the characters and the voice. With this book, by the time I settled into the story, it ended, and I was sometimes loath to start the next one because of the work it would take to mentally get into the new setting, character and voice.