A Father's Voice: A story that cuts through much of today's culture

It has been a long time since I picked up a book and did not want to put it down. I normally find myself in the middle of reaching three or four books at a time. However, recently I found a book that broke that habit. I kept wanting to find out what would happen next and I think most who pick it up will feel the same way.

A Father’s Voice is a powerful story that masterfully brings together three serious issues of today’s culture and sets them on a collision course. What happens when they collide is something that speaks greater volumes than just one person’s view or belief. Author Steven Parent dares to take on the question of “why” and takes the reader through an emotional roller coaster maze to get answers.

The journey will bring you to laughter as well as tears, while simultaneously rooting for a father caught in the cross hairs of a society that says his voice does not matter. When Michael Bishope finds out he is going to be a father he sees the beginning of a life-long dream coming true. But, when his wife tells him he will never be a father and she seeks an abortion, Michael refuses to give up.

His journey to truth, answers, and parenthood takes the reader through the same journey. During a moment of doubt about if there was anything he could do about her decision to get an abortion, a friend challenges him to take her to court to stop her. The court challenge is an earthshaking scream to our culture of a voice that is ignored and overlooked. The child inside a woman is the result of two individuals, not just the mother, but one voice is silenced in a culture that tells a father his desires do not matter and have no influence.

Putting his marriage on the line for the sake of his baby, all while maintaining a deep love for his wife, Michael finds himself not just managing the stress of a court battle but experiencing strange incidents with his wife that seem to have no explanation. The fight for an unborn life not only teaches him how silenced a father is during these decisions, but also pulls back a veil of his wife’s past she desperately tried to hide. To have a new start, his wife hides her horrendous past from Michael. Soon, he finds himself on a plane heading to the root of the issue. The destination will bring Michael face-to-face with the source of his wife’s mental health and psychiatric problems while giving him the answer to his great question: “why?”

It’s not easy to successfully create a book dealing with abortion that is as addictive as A Father’s Voice. However, this story takes it to a bold new depth by tackling not only abortion but includes mental health and severe child abuse. All three issues are handled with care, sensitivity and in a manner that causes the reader to relate to all aspects and both sides of the battle. Michael’s fight could easily be a battle of any father of an aborted child. His voice becomes the voice of those who have been silenced.