“The family she never knew. A tragic secret that will change her life”
- Book: The Hideaway (Norma Curtis)
- Location: Bergen-Belsen, London, North Wales
- Author: Norma Curtis
Thea works as a school secretary in London, who believes herself to be in love with art teacher Adam, although when he mentions settling down with her and includes marriage and children in the equation, Thea inexplicably panics, tells him it’s all over, and takes flight for the summer.
She has no one she can confide in about her mixed feelings and muddled emotions, as there was only ever her and Maggie, her rather self-centred, bohemian mother, who now lives in New York with her latest partner.
Heading for the coast of somewhere – anywhere, she pitches up in Bear Cave, North Wales, where she spots ‘The Hideaway’ for rent. It is a small, remote and rather dilapidated cottage, complete with outside privy, no wi-fi or mobile phone signal, and its own jetty on the riverbank, but Thea is in love with it.
Out of the blue she gets a phone call from Maggie telling her that her grandfather Harry has died, and she wants Thea to return to London to represent her at the funeral. Given that she had always been led to believe that both her grandparents had been deceased for years, Thea is even more amazed to discover she also has a grandmother, Hedi, a nonagenarian who wants nothing more than to follow the love of her life into the next world.
Social Services threaten to take Hedi into care because of her strange behaviour, so on the spur of the moment Thea offers Hedi a place to stay for the summer at ‘The Hideaway’, which she accepts. Hedi and Thea immediately begin to forge a strong familial bond, although both are tested when Thea is caught in the act of prying into her grandmother’s personal belongings and Hedi’s acerbic tongue and nasty temper come to the fore.
An unusually contrite Hedi accepts Thea’s abject remorse and apology, deciding it is time to reveal the secrets her battered brown suitcase holds, which so shaped her life and are the root cause of her falling out with Maggie, resulting in Maggie leaving the family home, taking Thea with her when she was only a toddler.
In a series of all-night sessions, sat in deckchairs down on the jetty, with copious amounts of red wine being consumed, Hedi and Harry’s story slowly and painfully unfolds. Tears are shed as memories are laid bare, recriminations are aired, and a lifetime of guilt and shame is put to rest. Thea gets to understand that there is more to her own mother than she could ever have guessed and quickly realises that Maggie and Hedi are two of a kind, both stubborn and intransigent, which is why they never saw eye to eye on things.
Hedi has far more surprises up her sleeve, including a revelation about Harry and their early life together, which stuns Thea, who had only ended up at Bear Cave by accident – or so she imagines!
An unexpected visitor arrives unannounced, and more tears are shed, this time of joy.
Will there be happy endings? You’ll just have to wait and see…
..
This wonderful dual timeline story, narrated by three of the characters, was told in short, well signposted chapters, which kept things moving along at a steady pace and had me turning the pages ever faster, needing to know what happened next.
Rich in atmosphere, multi-layered, highly textured, poignant and evocative, there is a compelling and compassionate honesty and integrity in this immersive storyline. The way in which Norma presents some of the socially unacceptable consequences of war and the unseen trauma they can heap on the human psyche, is perceptive, sensitive and well considered, without ever becoming preachy or prescriptive.
The destructive power of keeping secrets and not having any dialogue, is also examined, with the long-term effects this has on three generations of strong-minded, stubborn and resilient women. The liberating freedom they experience when barriers are broken down and the truth is out there, is a completely game-changing experience and instantly draws them closer together as a family, albeit briefly… All that time wasted!
Whilst, so far as I can establish, Bear Cave village is a fictional location, it didn’t take too much detective work to establish roughly whereabouts I was, as soon as Hedi arrived and knew so much about other nearby popular areas, which having been to them several times myself, I also know quite well. The descriptive narrative drew me in and painted the scene beautifully, so my ‘armchair journey’ to North Wales was indeed most satisfactory.
The cast of characters was quite large; however, author Norma Curtis took plenty of time to describe and draw them authentically and in great detail. They were an evolving, complex jigsaw of human emotions, often unreliable, vulnerable and volatile; yet always raw, passionate, genuine and believable to the roles in which they had been cast, which made them totally addictive.
My first book by this new to me author, but will it be my last? I don’t think so, as a couple of her previous novels have already magically appeared on my ‘wish list’!
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