When Nell’s father makes a deathbed declaration that hints at a long-held secret, it reignites feelings of isolation that have plagued her for years. Her suspicions about the family’s past only deepen when her mother, Annie, who is losing her memories to dementia, starts making cryptic comments of her own.
Thirty-five years earlier, Annie’s life was upended by a series of traumas―one shock after another that she buried deep in her heart. The decisions she made at the time were motivated by love, but she knew even then that nobody could ever understand―let alone forgive―what she did.
As the two women’s stories unravel, a generation apart, Nell finally discovers the devastating truth about her mother’s past, and her own.
In this beautifully observed and emotionally powerful story of identity, memory and the nature of family, Hannah Beckerman asks: To what lengths would you go to protect the ones you love?
I read this book a couple of months ago and adored it. My review was featured in the Express S Magazine last week, and I have shared it again in this post.
As part of the Blog Tour organised by FMcM Associates I am delighted to have three proof copies to giveaway. Entry is simple, just fill out the competition widget in this blog post. UK entries only please.
GOOD LUCK!
Nell is the youngest of three sisters, but she has never felt that she fitted in with her family and her relationship with her sisters is strained. Still, when her mother Annie develops dementia and her father Bill is dying, Nell steps up to help care for them.
On his deathbed, Bill tells Nell how much he loves her, but Nell is bewildered when he also says she was never really his to love. Then, as her mother begins to live more and more in the past, she hints cryptically at complex secrets that the couple have buried for decades.
The reader is then whisked back in time to the 1980s, when Annie and Bill started trying for a family. their first pregnancy ends in devastating heartbreak. And, when Annie finally gives birth, she begins to fear a terrible mistake has been made.
Nell needs to find out exactly what happened to her parents - and what it means for her future.
Hannah Beckerman tackles some of the most traumatic events a couple can face with a breathtaking sensitivity and insight and her compassion for her characters shines through in beautiful prose.
This powerful noel is emotionally challenging, but also a rich and deeply moving read.
Hannah Beckerman is a novelist and journalist.
She is a book
critic and features writer for The Observer and FT Weekend
Magazine and has contributed to a wide range of publications
from The Guardian to Red magazine.
As a regular chair at
literary festivals and corporate events she has interviewed a
host of authors and celebrities, as well as appearing as a book
critic on BBC Radio 2 and Times Radio.
Prior to becoming a
full-time writer, Hannah worked in television as a producer and
commissioning editor for the BBC, Channel 4 and the Discovery
Channel USA.
She lives in London.
The Impossible Truths of Love
is her third novel.
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