Her prodigal son has returned!
But has he truly left the past behind?
The police car outside triggers Alisa Stewart's worst fear--her son, Kurt, is dead, his life lost forever to addiction. Instead, the officer is just following a lead on a crime. And when Kurt calls to say he's checked himself into rehab and found a healing faith, Alisa feels a hope she'd given up on.
It's like her son has been brought back from the dead.
But then the cop returns, asking dark questions about the murder of someone Kurt once knew. Alisa is terrified. Her boy is different now. He's changed and deserves a second chance. But as his old life refuses to stay buried, Alisa finds herself facing an impossible choice:
keep silent and keep her son or risk everything in a quest for the truth.
Reviews
"Cushman's ... latest faith-based novel begins with a jolt. As a police officer arrives on the doorstep of Alisa Stewart's home, she fears that her only living son, Kurt, has been killed in the course of his dark lifestyle, living on the streets and using drugs. Her terror is calmed when she learns her son is only needed for an investigation into the beating death of a local dealer, and she's further assuaged when Kurt himself calls to say he is now in rehab. Latching onto this unexpected and desperately needed ray of hope, Alisa is deceived by her own optimism. As past secrets are revealed, she is forced to consider justice and mercy's conflicting demands. Though Kurt's struggle dominates the novel, Alisa faces additional personal crises--her husband threatens divorce and she's tempted by the possibility of an affair. The number of crises facing her is overwhelming and at times distracts from the power of the central conflict. However, the novel offers a denouement that will satisfy evangelical Christian readers with its resolution while maintaining its reality." --
Publishers Weekly
"Cushman's novel is a profoundly moving portrait of a mother's quest to protect her son at all costs. You won't soon forget this page-turner." --Chandra McNeil, Romantic Times Book Reviews
"Alisa Stewart is a woman on the edge, barely holding herself together for the sake of 10-year-old Caroline after one son is murdered, his younger brother Kurt turns to drugs and is kicked out of the house, and her husband moves out. When a detective turns up looking for Kurt as a person of interest in the beating death of his supplier, Alisa's carefully constructed façade of lies and concealed truths begins to crumble. And her faith, never as strong as she led others to believe in the church where she works and during the motivational speeches she delivers in public, wavers until she is faced with an ethical quandary of life-and-death proportions. Cushman's fortysomething protagonist matter-of-factly narrates her struggles with her conscience and her maternal instinct to protect her offspring in this introspective, deeply personal, and often emotionally painful contemporary Christian novel, which is sure to appeal to many readers." --Lynne Welch, Booklist
"Cushman does a good job of bringing up some weighty themes even as she weaves this entertaining story. No mother will be able to read this book without asking herself if she would she go to the lengths Alisa did if she were in the same shoes.... For a hard-to-put-down read that will prompt you to take a thoughtful look at your role as a parent and as a child, Leaving Yesterday is an excellent choice." --Violet Nesdoly, Blogcritics.org
"This is a heart-rending story that actually radiates hope. Just not the kind of hope we're used to seeing in today's modern church. Alisa is the kind of woman I'd want as my friend---my closest friend.
I only hope, after reading this novel, that I can be the kind of friend women like Alisa need in their lives. Kathryn Cushman writes stories with heart and passion, about people who could very well be living in your neighborhood.... I challenge you to read one Kathryn Cushman novel without a package of tissues at your side!" --Deena Peterson, TitleTrakk.com
