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A Keeper: The Sunday Times Bestseller

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The pre-loved books are carefully cleaned and maintained offering a wide variety of general and specialist titles from children's to adults.

As she is sorting through the effects of a lifetime, she discovers a box of letters that reveal her mother as Elizabeth never imagined. the TIMES'A compelling and moving story, expertly told, that will draw you in and keep you in its grip until the last page. Now”: Only child Elizabeth Keane, a 44-year-old college instructor, divorcée and mother to 17-year-old Zach, living in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, travels to Ireland to finalize her recently deceased mother’s estate in Buncarragh. It's a sad and lovely book, brimful of tenderness and compassion, where the revelations of the past upturn the perceptions of the present. Elizabeth thinks she knows her mother inside out, but her confidence in this takes a huge knock when she discovers a pile of ribbon wrapped letters in the back of Patricia's wardrobe.This was powerful storytelling, with depth of both character and plot, the threads joining both eras all strongly interwoven.

The plot is quite far-fetched to begin with, but there are some sizeable holes in it, such as when characters do something completely out of character, or when information is revealed that makes something from earlier stop making sense, and then it's never explained (did we ever find out why Patricia owned the house, despite Edward still being alive? who knows what drives people to try to set things right ,and instead making it a kidnapping nightmare. Despite my reservations however A Keeper is engaging, well-written and wryly humorous and despite feeling Elizabeth’s character lacked depth I found it a very worthwhile read. That box, and an appointment with her mother’s solicitor, unravels everything Elizabeth believes to be true about herself and her family. A few of the characters Elizabeth talks to regarding her mother and family history are really kind of jerks.As for Elizabeth, “back in New York, she had felt guilty for not missing her mother more, but in this house she felt her absence like a physical ache”. She has very little there, unpleasant memories, items of small value, but all that changes when she finds a small stash of letters telling a story that she was never told.

Norton cleverly mirrors the process of grieving in Patricia and Elizabeth’s stories, as the two women each mourn the passing of their mother. Graham Norton has fast become my go-to author when I’m in need of a guaranteed good read or a reading reset. This is where the story begins shifting back and forth between present day and the early 1970s, before Elizabeth was born.In doing so she finds some letters, written from her father to her mother right at the start of their relationship. You will be surprised at many points, and you will carry on reading because you want to know what happened as much as Elizabeth does. Following her mother’s death home in Ireland, Elizabeth travels to Buncarragh where she has inherited her childhood home.

What was supposed to be a bit of ordinary shuffle unravels into an emotional journey in time and some unexpected discoveries. She is a university lecturer, separated from her husband, and living in New York with her 17-year-old son. Final de ilginçti böyle bir son düşünmemiştim aslında yazarın başarısı da bu ; okuyucuya fırsat vermiyor ne olabileceği hakkında düşünmesine. I enjoyed both eras of this story, journeying along with Elizabeth while she balanced uncovering her family history with a family drama in the present.I don't like to do that with NetGalley reads though, so I may have to rethink on that in the future. I read Graham Norton's first novel mostly out of curiosity but found the writing very good, now after reading this book I will look out for his novels for the entertaining emotive writing.

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