After Harvest is a great, if not confronting read from a vantage point where much more than the physical and emotional outplay of family life is addressed.

Family is an aspect of life that holds both the most danger and destruction and equally the potential for great intimacy, nurturing and development as life’s foundation for living.

In a childhood such as Mary-Ellen shares – about abusive relationships between adults, abuse and neglect towards children, substance abuse, the many hardships associated with living off the land, being sent to boarding school and tensions around emerging sexuality – there typically would be one of two responses.

Either an outright rejection and distancing from the family, or an acceptance of the lie of happy families which forms a chronic metaphorical ulcer that does not heal. Not so here.

No happy families here. No justifications or excuses. No abuse, resentment or blame. Throughout the book Mary-Ellen beautifully observes her family and life with great detachment, referring to their actions and omissions as being born either of love or not love.

Mary-Ellen Bidner challenges how we view life and family and provides us all with the opportunity to zoom out and appreciate our relationships beyond the human interactions and embrace the fact that there is much more to our human existence than we are aware of. Focusing on the big picture, that there is more to this life than struggle and strife, opens up the possibility that there is never blame or right or wrong.

A highly recommended read.

– Anonymous