What do readers think of The Mouse-Proof Kitchen by Saira Shah? Write your own review.

Reading this engrossing story put me on a roller coaster of emotions. A young couple, Tobias and Anna, are preparing for the birth of their first child when suddenly their lives turn into a whirlwind of drama, emotion and adventure relayed month by month over the first year of their new daughter's life. Both Tobias and Anna search for a way to 'escape' the emotional burden of caring for their severely disabled but "perfect" daughter. They struggle with a fear of loving her and losing her. The move to France to take on the renovation of a dilapidated estate begins the adventure and the many delightful characters that come into their lives during that year in France add great depth to the story. I found I could not put down the book as I was caught up in their quest for providing care for this child and still finding some way to develop some normalcy in their lives and survive. The touching scenes between parent and child in so many situations will stay with me for a long time. Their final decision is a testament to the power of love which in this case was able to surmount many difficulties. Beware that their kitchen needed a lot more than mouse-proofing.

Although The Mouse Proof Kitchen starts out slow, by halfway through you can't put it down. Shah has a way with characters that endears them to you with their quirky ways. You can picture this town she writes about and all the characters within. Shah writes insightfully about babies with disabilities, every word rings true. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!

But, I ended up enjoying it. It was interesting that the diagnosis of Freya, the baby in the book, is the same diagnosis of the author's own baby girl. According to the afterward, this is the only similarity. It was an unusual premise, but probably more true to life than would appear, that the entire book revolves around Freya's birth, the defect of the baby, and how everyone reacts to it. The interplay between the parents as they grow to love the baby, is interesting as well. In general, I enjoyed it, and also enjoyed the character development of Anna's mother, as she also grows to love the baby. The characters in the village where the two protagonists buy the farmhouse, are also fun. All in all, it was a slightly uncomfortable, at first, premise, but it grows on you

I enjoyed this story and read it quickly. The characters are engaging and the author does a nice job of creating an engaging story while trying to deal with a very difficult subject matter. While I enjoyed the book on one level I never felt as though anyone would be so cavalier emotionally or medically with such a disabled child. The author makes a note about how she wanted Anna and Tobias to display extreme behaviors possibly as a way to address some emotions that real parents of disabled children feel but don't act upon. I just found the characters to be enjoyable and the story entertaining but as a fictional tale not something that I would think could be true in real life.

I would certainly recommend The Mouse Proof Kitchen. It is a story of life and how messy it can get, how human we are. It is also a story of profound love and all the challenges that love may face. And it is a story of families. Guarantees there are not! Set in a village in France, in a very old and "messy"farmhouse, it is a very moving account of the trials of having a less than perfect child. It is a story of deep friendships, secrets, forgiveness. Saira Shah, the author, is adept at strong emotion, the almost violent swings that occur. And there is humor......... I am so glad I read this book.

I expected this book to be funny, instead, I found it to be on the verge of depressing. Saira Shah does have a way with her writing to keep the reader interested though.

I would recommend this book to the over 40 crowd.

The Mouse-Proof Kitchen is a book that is well written but at times was very difficult to read because Anna and her husband Tobias face so many unbelievable challenges when their baby is born with extreme disabilities. Author Shah doesn't sugarcoat anything, and the result is that we feel we are living with their extreme frustration and conflicting feelings of fear, love, responsibility and rejection concerning their daughter. As if that were not challenge enough the conditions of the mouse-infested home they have purchased in France are deplorable. Of course their relationship is put to the test and one has to continue reading to see how they manage to deal with all the adversity. The minor characters are interesting and well developed. I would recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in evolution of plant life works in the French countryside, but mainly to those who feel life has dealt them a difficult hand. I think by comparison to this family, one will count their blessings.

I have to admit I have really mixed feelings about this book. I found myself admiring the sheer bluntness and candid honesty of Shah's feelings upon learning of the severe disabilities her child was born with. The knee jerk reactions of both she and her husband were at once difficult to read and in some ways easy to understand. His almost instinctive personal defensive action to simply walk away and leave the child in the hospital is disturbing in a way I find difficult to explain. As a parent, part of me fully understands that first, "OH NO, not my child," feeling, the desire to retreat to the "perfect child fantasy," while at the same time I was secretly gloating and patting myself on the back because my children are nice and normal and I did not have to face the difficult decisions they were faced with.

And, if I am to be as brutally honest as Shah was in describing her feelings, it is that instinctual parental gloating that gets in the way of my really enjoying this book.

I can't say I liked either one of these parents very much, even after they did finally snap out of their individual wallowing around in angst and self-pity, yet ... I cannot say I would not have reacted in the very same ways if it had been my children and that makes for some disconcerting reactions on my part while reading.

While on one had I did admire Shah's ability to show all the "warts and hidden excrescences" that being dealt that shattering parental blow must create, I did find reading her detailing of it extremely uncomfortable.