Of All Things, We Need Hope

For 21 years, Heather has worked tirelessly to keep her son’s killer safe in prison. She works patiently and with love to rehabilitate him and to give him hope and a reason to live so that he can ultimately be released and come home to her.

On this singular journey, she loses everything: Her husband, son, grandchildren, job, friends, family, home and her social and financial standing. How quickly everyone denounces her and accuses her of desecrating her own son’s memory, but she is not deterred, not even when she finds the one true love of her life that is so deep and terrifying to her that she has to turn it away before it destroys her mission to rehabilitate Smith, and to bring her son home.

Of All Things, We Need Hope is a story of hope, forgiveness, love and patience and of restorative versus retributive justice and it is a story of the long, slow burn of one mother’s love, that transcends all else.

Sally Cranswick is an Author & Writing Coach with a special interest in Life Writing & Memoir. She hosts writing workshops throughout the year and is a Lecturer in Creative Writing for the Department of Extra Mural Studies at UCT. She has written for various publications including Media24, The Sunday Times and LitNet.

Of All Things, We Need Hope (Modjaji Books, 2026), is her first novel and her collection of short stories, Women out of Water (Modjaji Books, 2021), was nominated for the South African Literary Awards, Nadine Gordimer Short Story Award, 2022. She has had many short stories placed in anthologies and publications.

She is currently studying for her PhD in Creative Writing at The University of the Western Cape, has an MA cum laude in Creative Writing from The University of Cape Town and a Creative & Media Writing degree from Middlesex University, London.

“Raw, moving, and compassionate, this novel kept me pinned to the page. Sally Cranswick writes tenderly about a grief that refuses to conform and a mother who won't be told when it is time to move on. Driven by the singular will of its protagonist, this story gallops to a breathtaking conclusion.” Fiona Snyckers, award-winning author

“This is an extraordinary and unforgettable novel about love and loss, reconciliation and

revenge. The vivid blue skies of Cape Town, the squalor of a high security jail, and the

unwavering purpose of one bereaved woman will stay with you long after the last page.

I urge you to read it.” Maggie Brookes, author of The Prisoner’s Wife.

​“Quietly devastating and morally complex.” Jannes Erasmus, reviewer

www.sallycranswick.com