In this darkly riveting debut novel—a sophisticated psychological mystery that is also an heartbreakingly honest meditation on memory, identity, and aging—an elderly woman descending into dementia embarks on a desperate quest to find the best friend she believes has disappeared, and her search for the truth will go back decades and have shattering consequences.

Maud, an aging grandmother, is slowly losing her memory—and her grip on everyday life. Yet she refuses to forget her best friend Elizabeth, whom she is convinced is missing and in terrible danger.

But no one will listen to Maud—not her frustrated daughter, Helen, not her caretakers, not the police, and especially not Elizabeth’s mercurial son, Peter. Armed with handwritten notes she leaves for herself and an overwhelming feeling that Elizabeth needs her help, Maud resolves to discover the truth and save her beloved friend.

This singular obsession forms a cornerstone of Maud’s rapidly dissolving present. But the clues she discovers seem only to lead her deeper into her past, to another unsolved disappearance: her sister, Sukey, who vanished shortly after World War II.

As vivid memories of a tragedy that occurred more fifty years ago come flooding back, Maud discovers new momentum in her search for her friend. Could the mystery of Sukey’s disappearance hold the key to finding Elizabeth?

For the book buffet.

Picked up at the Birmingham Uncon at the weekend. Adding to my TBR. Many thanks!

This was a lovely but sad story about Maud in two time frames, present day and war time or just post-war time, as rations were in full force but it seemed to be the aftermath of it all. Maud has dementia and struggles to remember anything but she has fragments of memories but she can't figure out or stay with these fragments to get the answers she knows she needs for SOMETHING. She half-believes her friend Elizabeth is missing and says it over and over but in her heart she knows this isn't quite right. In the 1940s part of the book we meet a young and fun Maud who lives with her parents and her older sister, Sukey, who is married and lives nearby but is often in her parents' house. Sukey goes missing and the family try to cope with the cataclysm that has shattered the whole family. Sukey and Maud's dad thinks Frank, Sukey's husband is behind her disappearance but Maud and her mother don't, and they like to talk about Frank when they are alone in the house. They have an odd lodger called Douglas who befriended Sukey before she went missing. Back to present day and Maud is mostly cared for by her daughter, Helen and repeats herself about where Elizabeth is, the best way to grow marrows and many other irrelevancies. I was pleased when Helen finally listened to/figured out what Maud's damaged mind was thinking/remembering and we got some closure, although Maud wouldn't have remembered the details for it to help her, I suppose, but it was a nice and touching read, and if you've had no experience of dementia (very lucky, if so!) this is an interesting read and shows you how the damaged mind works. What a fantastic debut book from Emma Healey. I look forward to her second book.

Taking along to the meet-up at the Towcester Mill Brewery in Towcester town centre on Sunday 22nd October. Meet starts at 1pm and all welcome.

Saw on the shelf at Towcester Mill - thought that I would give it a try!

Placed on the Book Buffet

Took this book from the book buffet to populate one of the OBCZs in Birmingham. This is a fantastic book and I hope it eventually finds appreciative readers.