Imagine waking up, not knowing where you are and having no memory. This is Anna’s plight. Even Stephen who claims to be her husband is a stranger to her. Where she lives in London does not feel like home. Apparently she has no job but was a librarian. No friends contact her. Her parents are dead. There is something strange about her marriage but she has no reference points. Stephen controls everything – for her own protection. She is lost in a sea of unknowns.
In Bristol Livvy, newly married to Dominic and looking forward to returning to work after six months maternity leave, is thrown by the unexpected arrival of Dominic’s estranged mother. Why is she stalking her daughter-in-law and what really happened in Dominic’s childhood? Livvy’s own close family is concerned when the couple decides to move to London for Dominic’s new job while Livvy has to give up the promotion she had longed for.
This is domestic suspense at its best. The Forgetting will grip you from start to explosive finish. It is an exquisitely written narrative of coersive behaviour. Two women’s stories brilliantly balanced: Anna’s in the first person; Livvy’s in the third. Two professional women, one determined to further her career, the other has no idea what the future holds until she can remember her past. The narratives are juxtapositioned until their two worlds collide with dramatic results.
This is Hannah Beckerman’s fourth novel and she handles her subject matter with an assured confidence. Highly recommended.
Published by Lake Union Publishing, available from Amazon.
It is always with some trepidation that I open a book by someone I know and like. More usually with a début (but not always) I’m terrified that I won’t enjoy it, worried that it’s mediocre or I won’t be interested by the plot or feeling murderous that it is so good!
Standstill is perfectly plotted throughout the narrative aided by dialogue, which is realistic and never superfluous. There is no spare fat in this novel.
Having read Sealskin, I can only describe the experience as what I imagine it would be like to be a selkie slipping back into my seal skin – the feeling of coming home, warmth and unbounded joy in a narrative that is perfectly constructed and beautifully written.
In Sealskin relationships are explored with perceptiveness and the evocation of the small Scottish fishing community with its diverse characters from wise women to drunken men who treat their wives badly while others look on. The children’s personalities are equally well developed. By the end of the book each character is seen in a different light.