March 2022 – Remember Me by Charity Norman, NEW ZEALAND

6th March 2022

Remember Me by Charity Norman, novel set on the North Island, New Zealand.

I have enjoyed several of the books written by this talented author and I remember first picking up After the Fall and knowing that I had found a writer, who has a consistently wonderful sense of pace and storytelling – and that I would continue to watch out for new titles written by her. I also passed my copy on to my mother, who was always a difficult person to please and she devoured all the books she could find by this author.

This novel is largely about the impact of Alzheimer’s on family dynamics. Emily has been prompted to travel from London to stay in the family home, nestled in fictional Tawanui, at the base of the Ruahine Range on New Zealand’s North Island. The house is a fairly spartan dwelling where her father, Felix, still lives. He is aware at times how his memory is fading, and of the rising level of confusion that plagues him every day. The author insightfully depicts the frustrations and irrationality around this all consuming disease, and paints the devastation this condition wreaks upon those trying to manage the individual and wider picture. She renders Felix’s story with conviction and poignancy and one might well imagine that she is drawing on personal experience in her own family.

Next door is long term neighbour Raewyn, who over the years has been supporting Felix in many ways; she alerted Emily to his deteriorating condition. There are twins – her siblings – who live more locally but Emily suspects their agenda is more about shipping him off into the local care home and availing themselves of any monetary benefits.

Raewyn is someone who has known tragedy herself throughout her older life. She lost her husband to serious illness, and her daughter went missing in 1994, presumed dead. Her body has never found and the mystery surrounding her disappearance, 25 years ago, has eaten away not only at her, her son but also at the community. Now in 2019, Emily is back to offer Felix the care she can…

What this author does so well is to lay out a story of the relationship between father and daughter, who have had a distanced connection on many levels. She weaves in the mystery of the disappearance of their neighbour and balances the two stories really well, adding a good level of intrigue to what is a fundamentally universal story. And what works so well is the pace, which is pitch perfect, it never wanders off point and never jars.

A highly recommended author.

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