Finding Grace
Alyssa Brugman

Allen & Unwin 2001

204p pbk $15.95

1-86508-453-0  

From the author:

I have read Finding Grace many, many times. Sometimes I got really tired of reading it, but in the end it is still a book that makes me laugh and cry.

Thank you to Cathy, Melissa and Emily. I will certainly take your comments on board when I am writing my next novel.

 For any young writers out there I have prepared a website www.geocities.com/alyssabrugman. I have put some tips on there about writing, (or at least how I do it) that might be helpful to other young writers.

Thank you as well to YARA, this is a fabulous resource for writers as well as readers.

Visit Alyssa's webpage for young writers

Read more about Alyssa

NNominated for the Ethel Turner Prize
2002 NSW PREMIER'S AWARDS SHORTLIST

Finding Grace, by the ingenious writer Alyssa Brugman, is a delightfully heartfelt and inspiring novel about finding love, true friends and getting a life. All whilst trying to balance your complicated life and care for a person who doesnt even seem to be there, at the same time.

Rachel believes she knows everything, yet a chance meeting with destiny leads Rachel to meet Grace, a brain-damaged young lady who still has some incomplete matters to deal with, and provokes Rachel into rethinking what life is really all about. Simultaneously, questions are forever surfacing in Rachels complex mind. Questions about Grace. What was she like before the accident? And can Rachel help to finalise all the concerns that Grace is still haunted by? Only time will tell, and inevitably there are other many other affairs for Rachel to deal with. This is one job Rachel will find hard to forget.

Finding Grace expertly depicts the subtle notions of the delicate and trusting bond forming between Rachel and Grace. And signifies the entanglements and complexities that everyone has to go through to eventually find their true and fulfilling selves which seems to forever be hidden amongst the confused circumstance that is your life. Finding Grace is a unique book which is hard to put down, and is a very skillful piece, by Alyssa Brugman, which portrays a very perplex plot in an uncomplicated and moving text made understandable and enjoyable to a wide extent of people aged 15+.

Neha, Year 9, Canberra, ACT

Finding Grace is an interesting, real-life novel unlike any I have ever read before. When Rachel finishes high school, the strange Mr. Preston offers her a job and she accepts it. She lives with and looks after Grace, a middle age, brain damaged woman. At first, Grace is just a woman, but later, searching through the spooky box Rachel discovers that maybe she doesnt know everything, and that maybe once Grace had a life.

Because of the language used in some areas of the book (the vocabulary and the occasional swearing) I suggest it for over 14s, but a young confident reader might enjoy it. It would especially appeal to someone in Year 11 or 12, because they can relate to Rachel; she is an interesting character.

The fact that Rachel is looking after an old (older than teenagers, therefore old) woman could appeal to some people, but not at all to others. It is a strange choice of topic, and at first I thought How could it appeal?. It is certainly an unusual way for Rachel to enter the adult world, but I highly recommend it.

I found the characters very unbelievable. They were all too perfect for actual people, or too imperfect. I didnt like the fact that at one time in the book Rachels mum just arrived and fitted in immediately. Mr. Preston was a little too wise, and his relationship with Grace was too good. Hiro was too much of a dream guy and Kate and her friends couldnt possibly be real.

Altogether, an interesting and enjoyable read. This book had everything rolled into one, and was utterly unpredictable, with strange surprises around every corner.

Finding Grace by Alyssa Brugman published in 2001 by Allen & Unwin is a realistic book told from the main character Rachels eccentric perspective. This is an interesting and unexpectedly amusing story about new love, finding grace, and getting a life.

Rachel never really had a life of her own until she met Mr Alistair Preston. Rachel first met Mr Preston when he was a guest speaker at her graduation ceremony, and then again when he offered her a job, which would change her forever. The job was caring for Grace a friend of Mr Prestons who is disabled and needs a live-in carer. This would mean moving out of home and finally getting a life of her own. Rachel the main charter is eighteen and knows everything. Well, not everything, but she does know a great deal about a great many things. Rachel is wacky and a little highly-strung but its her intense and strange personality that makes this book so funny. Mr Preston is a no-nonsense chap; hes a pillar of the community type, one of those really rich guys giving back to the community.

Finding Grace is a fabulously moving light-hearted novel about growing up and getting a life. Anyone will love this book. I recommend it mostly to those in their teens. The aspect of the novel I liked the most were the characters. This is because they seemed so real, they had personalities and flaws, which made this book much more enjoyable. 

Finding Grace is the story about Rachel, a young woman discovering the world after the Higher School Certificate (HSC). She enrolled in university, and becomes a live-in carer for Grace, a young woman with an acquired brain injury. This is the beginning of a shaky passage to adulthood.  Rachel must quickly develop tolerance and respect for people like Grace. As Rachel struggles to find what she wants to do with her life, she becomes fascinated with Grace before the accident. As she is confronted with the sorrows of life, Rachel also discovers the joys.

Finding Grace, is a great book. The reader is shown the world of a person with an acquired brain injury, having a great affect on his/her appreciation of people with such a condition. The characters are easy to relate to, and the terrifying prospect of deciding one's future is all too familiar to most of us finishing high school or college.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well told story. Finding Grace is one of those books you just cannot put down.

Emily, aged 16, Canberra, ACT

Rachel has just finished her HSC and is going out to the real world. She finds a decent live-in job, caring for a brain damaged lady called Grace. One day while in Grace's study Rachel finds Graces 'spooky box', which holds memento's of Grace's life before she had the stroke. As she sorts through it she tries to figure out one thing, Who Is Grace?

I found Finding Grace to be a very poor first attempt by author Alyssa Brugman. "Grace had a brain Injury" these are the words on the very first page that brings a harsh reality to the book, using blunt words with no life in them. Throughout the novel she repeats certain phrases, "I was eighteen and I knew everything. Well, not everything but I did know that.", to add humour to the novel, but to me this fails badly. She should have spent more time out in the real world researching ideas for the book and not making everything so rosy.

The mystery that she surrounds Grace with works quiet well until the middle of the book when I felt like skipping to the last couple of chapters to find out what happens and to finish the book. The focus is always either on the main characters problems, or Grace's 'spooky box'. Because of this there is not much room for the story to expand into other areas. When introducing new characters the narrator, Rachel, uses names that are created by what they look like or are talking about, which she continually uses in the novel, confusing the reader.

I thought it was a really good book until I took it off the shelf.

Paul, aged 14, Rural NSW