'We Are Called to Rise' - Laura McBride

Every person has probably wondered at least once, out loud or to themselves, whether their lives and their actions make a difference in the bigger picture. The greatest thing about We Are Called to Rise is that in some way, this is answered. It delves into how people who have never even met can have an impact on each other, sometimes with consequences because of the decisions an individual makes. This might make the book sound heavy and philosophical, but Laura McBride presents this information to you in a story that entices you in from the start.

The voices of four different people are written, seemingly with completely separate lives apart from living in Las Vegas until a tragedy occurs combining their stories and leaving them all wondering how much little tragedies matter; '...so little matters so much, and so much matters so little.' The most heartbreaking voice of the four is Bashkim, an eight-year-old boy of an immigrant family, who is so innocent and good. Through his school, he writes letters to a 21-year-old soldier, the second voice, who is in hospital having been flown back from Iraq and whose memories of the war haunt him endlessly. The third voice is a woman whose marriage has just fallen apart, and whose son is also struggling to cope having returned from his third tour in Iraq, with devastating consequences. The final voice is a female volunteer for CASA, though I won't say anymore about her than this; I wouldn't want to ruin the story for you!

McBride takes on a serious challenge switching between these voices, with the differences in age and gender, but she copes perfectly. In fact, she seems to excel with the most difficult one, Bashkim, really bringing his character to life through the pages. Where some books leave you struggling to hop from character to character, she makes it easy and uncomfortable, never leaving it too long between voices, never allowing you to lose the thread. McBride also, through these four different people, presents unique perceptions of Las Vegas, defending it as a home and not just a Strip, perhaps because McBride herself has lived there for two decades. She also seems to have another underlying message, one about war and its potential consequences away from the warzone for the soldiers, how their actions can be affected by their experiences.

The ending should be a disappointment, with some of the loose ends left untied with no neat little bow; you're still left wondering when you run out of pages how all of the characters actually end up, whether they end up happy. But where there should be disappointment, you feel content, perhaps because a fairytale ending would have been too unrealistic for this particular story. Anymore would have been too much, and perhaps would not have been as compelling as it was at its peak. Despite being her debut novel, Laura McBride has clearly mastered many of the techniques experienced authors still struggle with, particularly when to stop whilst you're ahead!