Time to clamp his defences back down before the flotsam and jetsam of his own life is washed up by the tidal wave of Aberfan’s grief; his father’s death, the abrupt end to his chorister days, the rift with his mother, with Martin.

Throughout the story I regularly thought of William as a kind hearted and genuinely good boy who developed into a man with these same traits. Finally note that the book has something rather coincidentally in common with another of the Observer Top 10 Debut Novelists feature – “Trespasses” by Louise Kennedy also features a main character with the surname Lavery (who also lost their father, has a very difficult relationship with their mother and who ends up working in the family business).Jo Browning Wroe’s debut novel, A Terrible Kindness, purports to be the story of a young embalmer who attends the disaster. Overall, I’m glad I read A Terrible Kindness and hope Jo Browning Wroe has another book in the pipeline. William is a very empathetic man, but, for me, his actions in the rest of the book seem rather over the top - maybe that's just me, but it became frustrating. I'd never considered the life of a boy chorister boarding and training at Cambridge and I certainly never envisaged being taken into the world of an embalmer.

There’s a great cast of characters - I liked kindly uncle Robert and jolly irreverent school friend Martin, and admired Gloria who bravely put up with William’s sometimes awful behaviour.

It tells the story of William Lavery, a talented chorister who, against his mother's wishes, follows in his uncle and late father's footsteps to become. A Terrible Kindness is not an easy read, by the nature of where the beginning is set amongst the tragedy of Aberfan, it was never going to be, of course. William’s mother, Evelyn, helpfully informs him, “There’s a madness that comes with grief”, and Martin is similarly educational: “You shut [music] out as if it was the thing that hurt you, when all along, it’s been the thing that can save you. I've found this a very difficult book to review because there were bits I did enjoy and bits I disliked. For the gentlest, most kindhearted person I know, you are extraordinarily good at making a pig’s ear of things.

I think the story needed to commit to Aberfan, or not bother as the circling back didn't work for me with very little story in the middle. A passionate kiss from the student nurse who has captured his heart sends him off on this mercy mission. Homosexuality couldn’t come out of the closet in 1966 and it’s a lingering awkwardness between Evelyn and Robert.What made it even harder for William, was that he was already bearing scars from his childhood before he went to Aberfan. William also has a horror of having children – which he ascribes to his experiences at Aberfan which leads to an eventual breach with Gloria – at around the point he rediscovers the friendship of Martin. Supporting these are friends and family whose patience, acceptance, devotion and love may be unremarked upon but is ever-present. The abrupt engulfing of a Welsh mining village school under a tide of liquid black filth back in the 1960s endures as a particular piece of ghastly British heritage. I did understand what he had been through and loved his kindness at the beginning and I totally understood how the events affected him, however, his behaviour at other stages in his life did frustrate me.

I guessed I’d have liked more Aberfan, and less of William (who, btw, for anyone who’s read the book, treats Gloria terribly. There are some things you read that have such an impact that they stay with you and I know this book will be one of them. The author gave an excellent introduction to and summary of the book in an interview with Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge where she is creative writing supervisor (having previously done an MA at the UEA in 2000 – in WG Sebald’s last year). I loved following William through his life as a chorister, an embalmer and ultimately a very sad and traumatised man who spent his life trying to do what’s best while being pulled in different directions.When a book makes me cry within the first chapter… it just… gahh… I don’t think I will be able to properly convey just how stunning A Terrible Kindness is. Finally, the last thing I’ll say about this book is that I’ll never forget sitting by the pool in Fuerteventura this afternoon, reading the last few chapters with tears STREAMING down my face! I’m damned if I’m going to look for songs that aren’t about love and life and loss and pain and joy.