Read for #bookclub @ReadingBtwWInes
Amazon blurb:
Against the beauty of Cornwall, a story of two women struggling with their past: one cannot remember hers, the other cannot forget…
When Hebe receives a life-changing diagnosis at only 53, she struggles to make sense of what it will mean for her, her job and the man she loves. With memories slipping away by the day, she flees to the one place she has always felt safe and peaceful – Cornwall, and the house her family spent so many summers in.
Lucy is having her own crisis, and seizes the chance to follow her aunt to Cornwall. Curious about what has driven Hebe there after so many years, she also has to battle with the secret she has kept since her family’s last summer there more than ten years ago.
Both women will learn that memories live in our hearts and that sharing secrets can set you free… But can they find their way back to the things that are truly important to them?
My reading experience:
At first pinch I was glad to be given a book with larger print and fewer pages than before, but had never heard of this author.
Hebe is a wordsmith, a historian and literary person with a passion for John Donne. But. She is losing her memory and trying fiercely, sadly and stubbornly to conceal it and live her days without help. As a reader I found this too frustrating but very real.
“uhtceare … an Old English word, worry in the hour before dawn”
So Hebe leaves her partner, the man who has loved her for many years to protect him from becoming her carer and in her eyes, giving him back his life. She sets off on a project of passion and rather by luck she is joined in her endeavour by her niece Lucy. They are an unlikely pair of somewhat similar nature.
The story is easy to follow but the chapters jump back and forth in time and sometimes I found myself having to turn back to check the date.
I read this for bookclub @ReadingBtwnWInes
Appletree Books 