About the Book
1942, Alexandria, Egypt. Covered in dust, Yvette and James hold hands for the first time as bombs explode above them. As the war rages on, they will find their way back to each other time and again, their love a beacon for their survival. After the war, their happiness takes root in England and blossoms, until a tragic event drives a wedge between them. The way back to one another is uncharted territory that both must be brave enough to face.
1974. Ten years after his wife’s death and with his son now at university, James craves change. He moves to the beautiful English village of Upton not thirty minutes from the city where he brought his bride Yvette, nearly twenty-five years ago. There he discovers a scarf that lights the dark edges of his memory. Could it be Yvette’s? As James makes a new home for himself and gently presses into the feelings the scarf evokes, he begins to unlock new revelations about his past that change everything he believes. Revelations that just might give James a new reason to live and the possibility of new love at last, after ten years alone.
Format: Hardback (384 pages) Publisher: 4th Estate
Publication date: 12th May 2022 Genre: Historical Fiction
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My Review
I finished Think of Me a few weeks ago but I’ve been putting off writing my review because I’m not sure I can do justice to it. But here goes….
A book that switches between multiple timelines can be difficult to pull off successfully but Frances Liardet does it brilliantly. There are some very clever touches that connect events in the past and present in a subtle and surprising way. (There was one particular moment where my response was ‘Oh, that’s that person’.) Using a journal as part of the narrative structure is another thing I’ve had problems with in other books, but not in this one. It works perfectly as a means for James, and us the reader, to discover Yvette’s story bit by bit, and I loved that the author kept one important element of it to the very last pages.
The emotional element of the story is handled in a way that is never sentimental and feels very true to the way relationships can change over the years. The book explores how people can block out things that are difficult for them to face and how things unsaid can be just as damaging as those that are said. The ‘Sources’ section at the end of the book reveals how the author’s own experience allowed her to handle one particular element of James and Yvette’s story with such empathy and insight. It was heartbreaking to see that when they needed each others support the most it was as if a great chasm had developed between them.
I loved the relationship between James and his son Tom, a mixture of deep affection and gentle teasing that is also challenged by some of the things that are revealed. Although there’s sadness and suffering in the book, it ends with a sense of hope and the possibility of new beginnings. As one of the characters to whom James becomes close observes, ‘You know […] things can change. Even if they lie in the distant past. Even if they are shocking, ugly. It’s a matter of seeing them in a new light’.
I absolutely loved Think of Me and I’m sure it’s going to be one of my books of the year. If you don’t have a tear in your eye as you read the last chapter I’ll be surprised.
My thanks to Rachel Quin and 4th Estate for my review copy.
In three words: Moving, powerful, captivating
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About the Author
Frances Liardet is a child of the children of the Second World War. She has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and studied Arabic at Oxford before traveling to Cairo to work as a translator. She currently lives in Somerset, England, with her husband and daughter, and runs a summer writing session called Bootcamp.
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The Historical Fiction Reading Challenge is hosted by Marg at The Intrepid Reader. You can find full details of the challenge here (and you can still sign up to take part) but the idea is to choose one of six different reading levels to aim for:
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