No Time to Wave Goodbye by Jacquelyn Mitchard

No Time to Wave Goodbye is the sequel to Jacquelyn Mitchard’s 1999 hit, The Deep End of the Ocean and picks up with the Cappadora family 22 years after son Ben was abducted. Miraculously, Ben was found nine years later and while the family struggled to adjust to a new normal, Ben, now known as Sam, has never felt truly at ease with his family. Now that the family is grown, Vincent, the struggling oldest son, has become a filmmaker. His second film is a documentary called “No Time to Wave Goodbye” and focuses on five families whose children have been abducted; but whose outcomes are not as happy as the Cappadora family. For these families don’t have closure – their children were never found, dead or alive. So the exist in a sort of limbo. The film is a success but just as they begin to celebrate, a tragedy strikes their family. A tragedy that they lived through once and barely survived. This is a very moving story and I highly recommend it, although man oh man does Mitchard like torturing this poor family. It will pull on your heartstrings and may even make you cry. It’s a relatively short book and if you’re like me, you’ll have a hard time putting it down.