The Impossible Truths Of Love By Hannah Beckerman

‘The Impossible Truths Of Love’ is the latest book by Hannah Beckerman.

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.

It’s been a while since a Hannah Beckerman book has been published but it’s certainly been worth the wait with her latest book from her new publisher. This poignant tearjerker had me gripped late last night and I was unable to put it down until I reached the final emotional page.

The story is written in the past and present tense seen through the perspective of mother and daughter Annie and Nell.

The present tense is seen through Nell’s narrative dealing with the aftermath of her fathers death and her mother’s dementia. On his death bed, he told her that he loved her even though she wasn’t his to love. As she helps her sisters pack up the family home as her mother goes into a nursing home, this triggers Nell into looking into her childhood as she always felt different to her older sisters.

The past tense is seen from Annie, who’s trying to come to terms with losing her baby and learning to love another one.

This story is a beautiful one that grabbed my attention from the first page. Both Nell and Annie are fascinating characters and I found myself racing through the chapters wanting to know more of their back stories.

The story tackles postnatal depression, dementia and grief and like Hannah’s previous novels, she handles these topics with sensitivity, immediately pulling on the reader heartstrings.

I loved the flow of the story as Nell dealt with the aftermath of her father’s death and the uncertainty of her place in her family and Annie tackled the death of her son in a time when post natal depression was seen as a taboo subject.

Beautifully and observationally written, ‘The Impossible Truths Of Love’ is a poignant and emotional book about family, grief and acceptance that had me reaching for the tissue box throughout.

You can pre-order ‘The Impossible Truths Of Love’ from Amazon and will be available to buy from good bookshops from 5th October 2021.