Amy Harmon – The Law of Moses

Synopsis

If I tell you right up front, right in the beginning that I lost him, it will be easier for you to bear. You will know it’s coming, and it will hurt. But you’ll be able to prepare.

Someone found him in a laundry basket at the Quick Wash, wrapped in a towel, a few hours old and close to death. They called him Baby Moses when they shared his story on the ten o’clock news – the little baby left in a basket at a dingy Laundromat, born to a crack addict and expected to have all sorts of problems. I imagined the crack baby, Moses, having a giant crack that ran down his body, like he’d been broken at birth. I knew that wasn’t what the term meant, but the image stuck in my mind. Maybe the fact that he was broken drew me to him from the start.
It all happened before I was born, and by the time I met Moses and my mom told me all about him, the story was old news and nobody wanted anything to do with him. People love babies, even sick babies. Even crack babies. But babies grow up to be kids, and kids grow up to be teenagers. Nobody wants a messed up teenager.
And Moses was messed up. Moses was a law unto himself. But he was also strange and exotic and beautiful. To be with him would change my life in ways I could never have imagined. Maybe I should have stayed away. Maybe I should have listened. My mother warned me. Even Moses warned me. But I didn’t stay away.

And so begins a story of pain and promise, of heartache and healing, of life and death. A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. But most of all . . . a love story.

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Véleményem a könyvről

Különleges volt ez a könyv. Amy Harmon hihetetlen írói tehetséggel van megáldva. Olyan csodálatos képességgel tudja megformálni a szavat és mondatokat, hogy néha az ember szíve hevesebben ver már csak attól, hogy olvassa a szavait. Elképesztően szépen megírt, szívbemarkoló történet. Maga a könyv egyáltalán nem hasonlított a Making faces-hez. Ezúttal valami egészen újat kaptam, mégis ugyanúgy a lelkemig hatolt ez a történet is.

A könyv főszereplője Moses, akit csecsemőként egy mosodában találnak meg egy kosárban akárcsak a bibliai történetben, ezért mikor beviszik a kórházba a nővérek ezt a nevet adják neki. Kicsi városkában történik az eset, így hamar fény derül rá, hogy a szülőanyja egy drogfüggő volt, aki néhány nap múlva meg is halt, így kerül kisfiú a nagymamájához. Cracked baby. Így nevezik az olyan babákat akinek drogfüggő volt az édesanyjuk. Úgy hírlik az ilyen babák betegen jönnek a világra, vagy rohamok, esetleg hallucinációk gyötrik őket és hamar kiderül, hogy Moses is különleges fiú. Nem barátkozik senkivel, folyton bajba kerül, nem tud megülni egy helyben, kivéve amikor elmerül a festés világában. Merthogy Moses fest, nem is akárhogy. Csodálatos színekkel, élethű képekkel és arcokkal egész falakat tölt meg és ilyenkor teljesen kikapcsol, valahová máshová kerül. Azonban szinte mindig olyan dolgokat fest ami felkavarja az embereket. Halott vagy eltűnt szeretteiket és azok emlékeit festi fel a házuk falára, az út szélére.

Moses szomszédságában él egy lány Georgia, aki mindenáron össze akar barátkozni a fiúval és végül szerelembe is esnek egymással. Georgiának tetszik, hogy Moses különleges, elbűvöli ahogy fest és bár meglehetősen furcsa a kapcsolatuk, mégis szívet melengettető.
A történet rendkívül izgalmas fordulatokat is tartogat, ugyanis a környéken az évek alatt folyamatosan történnek furcsa eltűnések, amelyek során rendszerint fiatal lányok az áldozatok. Mindenki Mosesre gyanakodik, hiszen ő az aki lefesti őket az út szélére, a nappalija falára… Aztán történik valami, ami miatt Mosesnek hirtelen el kell hagyni a várost. Majd a történet hét év múlva folytatódik…

A csodálatos borító egy annál is csodálatosabb történetet rejt. Mindenkinek ajánlom aki egy fordulatos, szívbemarkoló de ugyanakkor gyönyörű könyvet szeretne olvasni.

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My Review in English

This book was very special and Amy Harmon is an amazingly gifted author. She can form the words and sentences so incredibly that sometimes just reading her books cause my heart beat faster. It was an unbelievably beautiful written, heart-wrenching story. This was nothing like my other favorite book from her, the Making Faces. This time I got something really different and it carved itself deep into my soul.

The main character is Moses, who was found in a laundry room in a basket, like in the Bible. It happens in a little town so they find out quickly that his mother was a drug addict, and she died after she gave life to the boy. After that his grandmother raises Moses. Cracked baby. This is what they called the babies like him, whose mother was a drug addict. They say that these babies are ill, they have hallucinations, seizures and it soon becomes obvious that Moses is special, too. He has no friends, he gets in trouble all the time and he can’t sit still for a long time except when he paints. And Moses paints beautifully, with wonderful colors, and with amazing talent. When he paints he just switches off, he gets somewhere away. But these paintings upset the people of the town because they are mostly paintings of the dead loved ones of them, their faces and their memories.

Moses’s neighbor Georgia wants to become friends with him no matter what, and after some time their friendship slowly becomes romance. Georgia likes that Moses is so special, and she is fascinated by his paintings. They have a really strange relationship but it is so beautiful and heart-warming. The story holds a lots of excitement and twist and turns, too, because during the years there are some strange disappearances, and every time the victims are young blond girls. Everybody suspects that the culprit is Moses because he is who paints them on the walls of barns, the side of the road or his walls of his living room.  But one time something happens and Moses has to leave town. The story continues after 10 years…

Behind the amazing book cover you will find a more amazing story. I really recommend for everyone who wants to read a twisting, heart wrenching, but also really beautiful book.

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My Favorite Quotes From the Book

“Those are my five greats for Georgia today. Those were my five greats yesterday and they will be tomorrow and the next day, until your kisses get old. Then I’ll have to think of something else.”

“If I were to paint you, I would use every color.”

“Whatever it was, when Moses came to Levan, he was like water—cold, deep, unpredictable, and, like the pond up the canyon, dangerous, because you could never see what was beneath the surface. And just like I’d done all my life, I jumped in head first, even though I’d been forbidden. But this time, I drowned.”

“It was both manic and mesmerizing, it was controlled chaos and detailed dementia.”

“I didn’t know if his art was helping. But Moses’s pictures were like that, glorious and terrible. Glorious because they brought memory to life, terrible for the same reason. Time softens memories, sanding down the rough edges of death. But Moses’s pictures dripped with life and reminded us of our loss.”

“A story of before and after, of new beginnings and never-endings. A story flawed and fractured, crazy and cracked, and most of all, a love story.”

“Any time you start feeling sorry for yourself or you go into a rant about how bad life sucks, you immediately have to name five greats. (…)
Georgia’s eyes. Georgia’s hair. Georgia’s smile. Georgia’s personality. Georgia’s kisses.
“See? Definitely five greats for Moses.”

“With her head on my shoulder, touching but not tempting, kissing but not tasting, holding but not taking, we spent our first night together in seven years, and it was markedly different from the last. Maybe it was our desire to get it right or to not repeat the mistakes of the past.”

Spoiler alert! (sorry but this is one of my favorites :))

“After I lost Eli, I would come out to the horses, and without fail, the horse I was working with would end up lying down in the middle of the corral. Sackett, Lucky, or any of the other horses. It didn’t matter. Whichever horse I was working with or interacting with would lie down like they were too tired to do anything but sleep. I knew they were reflecting what I was feeling. The first couple of times it happened, I just laid down too. I couldn’t change the way I felt. Self-awareness wasn’t enough. The grief was too heavy. But as I forced myself to get back up, the horse would get back up too.” 

Six -GREATS- Stars

6 stars

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About the Author

Amy Harmon is a Wall Street Journal, Amy HarmonUSA Today, and New York Times Bestselling author. Amy knew at an early age that writing was something she wanted to do, and she divided her time between writing songs and stories as she grew. Having grown up in the middle of wheat fields without a television, with only her books and her siblings to entertain her, she developed a strong sense of what made a good story. Her books are now being published in several countries, truly a dream come true for a little country girl from Levan, Utah.

Amy Harmon has written eight novels – the USA Today Bestsellers, Making Faces and Running Barefoot, as well as The Law of Moses, The Song of David, Infinity + One, Slow Dance in Purgatory, Prom Night in Purgatory, and the New York Times Bestseller, A Different Blue. For updates on upcoming book releases, author posts and more, join Amy at www.authoramyharmon.com

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