The Things We Keep
Author: Sally Hepworth
Pages: 351
This is the story that takes place in a home for folks who have Alzheimers. Anna is only 38 years old but has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimers. After she found out, she left her husband and moved in with her brother. But when she accidentally starts a fire that harms her young nephew, she asked to be moved to a facility.
In the facility she meets another young person with Alzheimers named Luke. Luke and Anna begin a relationship as their memories slowly slip away. Eve - a new cook with a checkered past - comes to the care home to work and care for the patients. Her young daughter, Clementine, who has been uprooted from everything she knows, tries to make sense of her new life.
Around them swirls a life that neither Eve or Anna ever expected. Both trying to hold on to what they knew yet knowing that they cannot. And when a tragic accident forces Anna and Luke's families to separate them, Eve tries to figure out a way to bring them back together.
I have mixed feelings about this book. first - it is a fast read. The story moves quickly and the chapters go back and forth between different characters. The story is heartbreaking to think of a woman as young as Anna having dementia and quickly losing her ability to remember anything.
What I didn't like about the book was the whole involvement in Eve in Anna and Luke's love story. Eve is a cook - not a nurse or a doctor - yet she feels she is a bit of an expert on what Anna and Luke need. She doesn't know their whole story, doesn't know why the tragedy happened, and yet she feels it is her responsibility to make sure these two get to spend time together since they are "in love"? I don't buy it. IT was just too unrealistic, and I found myself rolling my eyes at that part of the story.
I cannot say to skip the book. This piece above is not the biggest part of the book, and so I think it is worth a read.
Stars: 3 1/2
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