Remember Me By Charity Norman

‘Remember Me’ is the latest book by Charity Norman.

After years of living overseas, Emily returns to New Zealand to care for her father who has dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time – and to glimpse shattering truths about his past. Are some secrets best left buried?

When you read a book by Charity, you know it’s going to be an emotional rollercoaster of a story that grips from the first sentence.

The story is seen through the narrative of Emily, who has moved to England, but has been called back to her homeland in New Zealand when her father develops dementia. But moving back home, brings up a world of new memories especially on the 25th anniversary of a missing woman called Leah, who’s a friend of the family. And with her father, losing his grip on reality, he’s starting to talk about Leah and Emily fears that he knows more about the disappearance than she ever realised.

I loved this story, it’s atmospheric with the rural setting of the small New Zealand town with a small population where everyone knows everyone. Ever since Leah disappeared, the town has never been the same and there was always a curiousity into Leah’s disappearance. Emily is a great protagonist, her relationship with her father has always been rocky, but moving back home after years away, she develops a bond for the vulnerable man who was once the pillar of the community but who’s now uncertain and scared.

The revelations between the pair of them make for tender and sad reading as the pair of rediscover each other and Emily has to deal with one minute having a normal lucid father and other times thinking there’s a stranger in his house. Charity writes vividly and emotionally, it does strike a chord with me at times.

Emily has elder siblings, a brother and sister and they all think they know what’s best for Felix, their father. But the siblings come to blows when Emily is given the power of attorney and the twins fall out with Emily over this new power, even though at the core of it all, they all care for Felix and his welfare.

A story of nostalgia and recovery, ‘Remember Me’ is a taunt and intense story about old ghosts, relationships that makes for intriguing reading.

You can buy ‘Remember Me’ from Amazon and is available to buy from good bookshops.