When Lions Roar by Karen Gruber

 

When Lions Roar is a mixed bag of a book. We start off in Maggie’s story which is a horrific tale of spousal abuse and alcoholism and the shining light that is her daughter Hannah. When her husband is transferred and they have to uproot their lives and move to South Africa, Maggie is terrified. Her days become a numb blur of alcohol and the same things happening over and over until one day she wakes up to find her daughter missing. With their current location being in the bush, anything could have happened to her. Maggie sits at a crossroads now to decide whether she is incapable of carrying on once she realises what her life has become, or whether she is strong enough to pick up the pieces and make herself whole again.
On the other side, we have a fable-type story from the wildlife’s perspective and it’s a tale as old as time itself: love, greed, deception, and courage. And forefront to this story is The Golden Creature – one who will right the wrongs and bring about peace and unity once more. Little did they know that the human Hannah would be the one they needed.
Will Hannah help them end the tyranny lurking around every corner? And will Maggie ever see Hannah again?

It was very strange to read both tales as it honestly seemed as though they were two completely different stories side by side. Both tugged at my heartstrings in different ways and yet the deep thread running through both was the feeling of having reached rock bottom and not knowing whether or not the courage was there to rise up and carry on. Interspersed were snippets of possible new beginnings, people helping others for the sheer sake of helping, and different cultures experiencing the same basic relationship issues and how they chose to deal with them.

There were a few questions like what really happened to Hannah while missing and why her husband reacted as he did at the end, but the telling of each was simple and true.

While not the most riveting book ever written, and with characters not quite achieving being fleshed out fully, its quiet moral and teachings of resilience resound.