“Forever Is Over” is an equilateral love triangle focusing on life, love and precious time.
Richie Billingham, a married father of two in his early thirties, is attending a party held in his honour and organised by his wife, Jemma. He has terminal cancer.
Through the eyes of several characters, we are taken back through the lives of Richie and Jemma.
Richie is from a large middle class family. His father is a gambler, his younger brother Jim, a constant irritant and his older sister Caroline provides an unusual insight into her romantic world.
Jemma is from a working class, one parent family. As her mother, who she refers to as “Vomit Breath,” is far more interested in partying than parenthood, Jemma establishes a strong bond with her sister, Kelly, until one day their worlds are torn apart.
Kelly was Richie’s first love. The idyllic, countryside setting where Richie and Kelly used to escape they called their “Sunny Road.” When Kelly disappears, Richie is forced to move on, but several years later, not knowing that Richie is now married to her sister, Jemma, Kelly writes a letter to Richie, stating her intention to return and suggests they rekindle their romance .
The novel was initially inspired by the song “Sunny Road” by Emiliana Torrini.
My Review: OMG, although this book is pretty big (628 pages) and in places it seemed to take “forever” to read, it was simply beautiful. I read it over a couple of days on holiday and sobbed into my sunbed. I experienced so many emotions during this book but above all it will stay with me for years to come. I recommend this book to everyone I know and it would definitely be in my top 10 reads of 2013.
About The Author: Calvin Wade was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire in 1971. He studied Economics at Manchester Metropolitan University, graduating in 1992. On graduation, he worked in a record shop for eighteen months to fund a backpacking trip around the world. Since returning from his travels,the majority of his working life was spent in the mortgage industry, working for Alliance & Leicester, Yorkshire Building Society and Birmingham Midshires. During this period, he ran five marathons, three in London and one each in Liverpool and New York. His first London Marathon was run in a fancy dress house where he was narrowly beaten by an apple, a banana and a pear. In 2006, he wrote a five minute monologue for BBC Radio Five Live entitled, “I Hate Football”, which was performed by Johnny Vegas. It first aired in June 2006 and was repeated on a Christmas Day special. ‘Forever is Over’ was his debut novel in 2011, which peaked in the Amazon UK Top 20 in ebook format. This was followed by a second fictional novel, 18 months later called ‘Kiss My Name’. Two non-ficitonal books then followed. The first, ‘Another Saturday & Sweet FA’ was the story of attending all 14 rounds of the FA Cup with his father, a former FA Amateur Cup Finalist and a charity fundraising groundhopper called Alan Oliver. The popularity of ‘Another Saturday & Sweet FA’ led to a decision to cover the FA Cup, FA Trophy & FA Vase, one season after the other, to make up a footballing trilogy. The story of the FA Trophy adventure, “Brutal Giants & The Village King (A Ferriby Fairytale)” was released in April 2015. 50p from the sale of each football ebook/book is donated to a specialist cancer hospital in Manchester, The Christie. On 28th July 2015, a third fictional book called ‘Waiting For The Big Stings’ was released on ebook. Calvin Wade is married to Alison and has two sons, Bradley and Joel.
