Rachel Howard's "The Risk of Us" The Instability and Challenges for Foster Families

Rachel Howard's debut novel "The Risk of Us" gives us a piercing portrait of a married couple who choose to foster 7 year old Maresa intending to adopt her.  Maresa is an aggressive child resorting from trauma, abuse and separation from her birth mother.  The book is written from the foster's mother's perspective as she records the traumatic toll of events & emotions that wreck havoc on her, her husband, Maresa and their marriage.  The book deals with the distress of loving a child deserving of love only to feel incapable of coping and unsure of wanting to accept the formidable demands.  Howard's written a heart wrenching tale that is true of many children in foster care hoping for a permanent home, having dealt with abuse and torn between their birth their mothers & foster parents.  The endless social service workers, therapy and legal entanglements inherent in the system are taxing and oftentimes borders on lunacy.  At the center of the story we're torn between feeling empathetic with Maresa and sympathetic with the mother who waffles in her steadfast commitment for fear of destroying her marriage and waning abilities to cope.  The mother speaks to Maresa in a memoir that is excruciatingly draining.  The reader understand the couple's urge not to finalize the adoption and give up on Maresa for their own well-being.  There are phalanx of people who interact with Merasa & her foster parents including family, social workers, educators to varying degrees of patience, understanding, frustration & resentment.  The risk of providing unconditional love knowing the tumultuous course of caring for a child filled with rage & destructive behavior bearing the gravitas of  concern meshed with guilt.  Howard's elegant writing winds gracefully though the intricacies of adoption and the tempestuous capacities of tenacious love.  There is a driving mystery as to how the family dynamics will play-out.  This is an unflinching & compelling novel of the harrowing risks of selfless love that speaks directly to all of us.