The Gingerbread House

by Kate Beaufoy

Nestled among cherry trees in a picturesque country garden, the Gingerbread House resembles an illustration from an old-world storybook. But beware! For in the fairy-tale, that’s where the witch lives...

Away from the city, with no distractions, the Gingerbread House seems like the perfect place to start work on a novel. That’s what former advertising copywriter Tess thinks when she goes there to live with Eleanor, her aged mother-in-law. But Eleanor is suffering from dementia, and caring for her proves tougher than Tess could ever have imagined: feeling increasingly isolated, her only comfort is wine o’clock and weekend visits from her husband. Meanwhile her teenage daughter Katia is helpless to intercede; in the end she can only watch as things fall apart and a tragedy even closer to home surfaces.

The Gingerbread House is a deeply moving novel: a compassionate and occasionally wickedly funny tale of a family’s agonising struggle with dementia.

What readers are saying about The Gingerbread House:

'Moving, honest, and darkly comic, The Gingerbread House confronts an issue that has been taboo for too long.
MARIAN KEYES

'Gripping, heartbreaking, funny, surprising - The Gingerbread House is all of these, and a lot more.'
RODDY DOYLE

'Beautiful, heartbreaking, original, honest, unique.
CECELIA AHERN

Genres: Mental Health

First published March 2, 2017

Reviews

[Stace · Rating 4 out of 5]

You’d be forgiven with the title ‘The Gingerbread House’ for thinking that this book was going to be a sweet, easy, chicklitesq read. It is far from it.

In the fairy-tale of the same name lives a witch. There is one in this book too, well that’s what teenager Katia calls her grandmother who lives there, though she hasn’t always been a ‘witch’.

Eleanor, Katia’s grandmother has severe dementia and is extremely demanding, angry, and everything must be done perfectly. When her usual carer takes three weeks off to travel home for her daughter’s wedding, Eleanor’s daughter-in-law, Tess (Katia’s Mother), steps in to help, and stay for the three weeks.

Katia decides that she wants to stop with her mum, so she travels with her to stay at her grandmother’s house. Tess though, never thought that looking after her mother-in-law would be so difficult, and all that Katia can do is stand and watch her mum, run herself ragged.

The story is narrated by teenager Katia, and opens with her arriving at her grandmother’s house, that she calls ‘The Gingerbread House’. She takes us on a tour of the property, before introducing us to her mother, and grandmother.

The style of writing did take me a little while to get used to. I’m used to books being told in the first person, but this felt more personal, and right near the end, you’ll understood why, as there is a big shock to come, one that hopefully you won’t see coming. Unfortunately, from the style of writing I had guessed by chapter five, but believe me it didn’t take away one bit of my enjoyment of the story.

The book is exceptionally poignant. It shows you just how much hard work, and how much care someone with dementia needs, whilst at the same time make you realise that this once popular, well-loved person has turned into someone unrecognisable, via this cruel illness.

Although heart-wrenching at times, it also has a very dark-humoured side to it. Especially from the jokes that Donn, Tess’s husband tells her, to keep her spirits up.

A wonderful, moving book, that will play with your heart strings, give you a little giggle, and shock you with the big twist.

Reviewed by Stacey on www.whisperingstories.com

[Bookread2day · Rating 3 out of 5]

Katia's Mama had been made redundant. Money wise, things got really bad. The novel Mama's going to write is a thriller. Katia wishes that her Mama was writing something that would make her laugh, her Mama used to laugh a lot at her own stuff when she worked as a copy writer.
Tess goes to help her aged mother-in-law who is suffering from dementia. One of the websites that Mama consulted before they came to the Gingerbread House, read. People with dementia can behave aggressively in one or more the following ways. Being verbally abusive or threatening. Being physically threatening, such as kicking or pinching. Lashing out violently at people or property. Teenager Katia feels helpless as she watches how difficult it is for her Mama caring for her Granny with dementia. A deeply moving story that heartbreaking and funny in places.

[Eva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nestled among cherry trees in a picturesque country garden, the Gingerbread House resembles and illustration from an old-world storybook. But beware! For in the fairytale, that's where the witch lives ...

Not really. The Gingerbread House is nothing like the one in the fairytale and the witch is a grandmother suffering from dementia.

When Tess is made redundant from her job as an advertising copywriter, she goes to the Gingerbread House as it seems like the perfect place to work on a novel. But caring for her mother-in-law Eleanor is harder than she imagined.

The story is narrated by Eleanor's granddaughter, fourteen year old Katia. Katia doesn't talk but she's an excellent listener and observer. She loves books and stories and it is she who named the house. As Tess starts to struggle with the isolation and the harsh reality of being a full-time carer, Katia is forced to watch helplessly.

This really hit a nerve with me. My grandmother suffers from dementia too. While it hurts that she doesn't always remember me, the most emotional moment for me was when I realised that she knew fully well what was happening. "There's something wrong in my head", she told me. Like Eleanor, she has good moments and bad moments and it's the bad ones that are positively draining.

There's no sugarcoating, it's highly realistic and believable and you will come away with nothing but the utmost admiration for those that are full-time carers.

The Gingerbread House is a deeply moving story. Heartbreaking and occasionally also quite funny. Katia is a fabulous narrator and her father often relies on dark humour to lift his wife's spirits. There's also a twist I didn't see coming it all. At the end of the book, I was left with a massive lump in my throat.

Many thanks to Black & White Publishing and Netgalley for my copy which I chose to review.

[Mary Snaddon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cannot praise this book highly enough. Having been a carer myself for the elderly and often those with demetia, I know for a fact that this book tackles the raw reality of this disease. There are many books around on this topic but this one goes where no others have dared. It is narrated by the old lady's grand-daughter who is watching her own mother struggle to give personal care to her mother-in-law. It is very funny in parts and heart breakingly painful in others. As for the end? WOW!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the book in one setting, I always go into a book without reading the back cover blurb. I like to be opened minded and ready for whatever journey the author wants me to go on and which lessons I can learn from each crisp new page.

With this book, the cover gives nothing away. But it is beautiful with the strong colours.

Beaufoy writes with such purity and honesty that the heinous topic that is the heart of this book is laid out in front of us in its raw naked state. Beaufoy does not try to sugar coat the struggle that millions of older Adults who are caring for their elderly relatives face each day. Having seen my own parents cope with the illness Dementia slowly stealing my Nana Alice. I could relate to the frustration and angst of the main character. It was a slap to my younger self as to what they went through.

I love the way the Little Mermaid and Charlottes Web are incorporated into the book. They play a very important role. I thought it was a beautifully creative way to relate to us important details of the story. So what did I learn from my journey of the book? It made me reflect on the past and I had the urge to immediately tell my friends about the book so I could talk about it and dissect ours and the Authors thoughts.

Although the journey is uncomfortable at times. It has perfectly times humour. On point and even made me laugh out loud at times.

[Cathy Geagan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this little gem months ago and am shamefully only getting to writing the review now. This is a deceptively simple tale of teenage Katia, unable to help her family as her recently unemployed mother moves in with her aged grandmother as her carer to save money. We see the family through Katia’s eyes – how desperately her mother missed her father during the week; how cruel the toll of dementia is on an individual and their loved ones; and slowly as the book evolves we uncover another tragedy that sheds light on why a profound sadness is just below the surface in every interaction.

The Gingerbread House is gentle yet gripping – I had to find out what was going to happen, even though much of the book is a skilful capturing of moments and character development rather than driving plot. Little details are softly devastating “On the table next to her is a large-print book, a glasses case and a magnifier. Granny doesn’t read anymore, but she likes to pretend she can. She wears a wrist watch so that she can tell the time, but because she can’t decipher the numerals the time for Granny is always day or dark night or the dusky in-between”. Katia is a beautifully drawn character, and I loved getting to know her. This is a bittersweet, but ultimately life-affirming story, and I highly recommend it.

https://eatsplantsreadsbooks.wordpres.... I received a copy of The Gingerbread House from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Hilary Mortz · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a marvellous book this is. It is charming, funny, tender and sad and devastatingly readable. I will never forget it.

To me The Gingerbread House is as chilly a horror story as anything I have ever read by Stephen King. It is about the terrible affliction that the majority of us fear most of all - senile dementia and our fear of not being able to cope with a loved one or a relative who is struck down by it. The passages where the untrained Tess has to bathe and dress her incontinent mother-in-law, Eleanor, are as terrifyingly gothic to me as a vampire scratching at a bedroom window.

This is a very personal book and anyone who has cared for a sick relative will recognise the endless repetitive questions, the bursts of heartbreaking clarity and the very many 'laugh or I will cry' moments that Ms Beaufoy brings to the table.

The characters are all very well drawn, especially young Katia, who narrates the story, her beleaguered mother Tess and the wonderful Eleanor, who is the 'witch' that haunts the decaying house.

An absolute joy from start to finish.

[Emma Crowley · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw Kate Beaufoy had a new book being published I was thrilled as I have been a long term fan of her work and especially have loved the different direction that her last two books have taken her in. The cover for this new book The Gingerbread House was simply stunning. It packs a punch in it's simplicity yet I could tell there was a powerful story waiting to be read. I didn't even read the blurb before beginning because I knew anything Kate publishes I want to read it no questions asked.

What surprised me initially was the length of the book at just about 200 pages I wondered was this more of a novella? Admittedly I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting a big chunky read that I really could sink my teeth in to. I really should not have had any hesitations at all because this book caught my attention right from the very first line and the more I read the more I found myself being drawn deeper into the story and the characters situation and feelings. So yes it was short and I read it in one sitting but this is the kind of book that there is so much to take from it that as soon as you are finished you feel the need to go back and reread it again. In fact this book more than deserves several re-reads to fully absorb the beauty of the writing, the message conveyed within and just to pick up on the little bits you will have missed the first or even the second time round. In two hundred pages of its length not one word, phrase, scene or sentence was not utilised to utter perfection. Everything was carefully placed and the reader can sense the time and effort that went into writing this gem of a book which although proved a hard read for the majority in the end it turned out to be faultless and is already a major highlight of my 2017 reading.

The Gingerbread House is a deeply moving novel which affected me in ways I never thought possible and I shed more than a few tears whilst reading it. It really struck a chord with me given its subject matter and I believe anyone who reads it will find something they can identify with. It is a deeply compassionate novel that follows one family's struggle to cope with an older relatives demise into dementia. This topic is not featured in books all that often and deserves to have more attention. Maybe authors are afraid they will not do the topic justice but here Kate Beaufoy has gotten to the heart of the matter with stunning affect. The harsh realities of the situation and the physical and mental toll on both the carer and the patient are written in all their glory for the reader to comprehend. I found myself having to stop everyone so often just to ponder what I had read and to take everything in. For those who may not have had someone in their family suffering from dementia they need not worry as they would also find similarities with having to cope with someone suffering a serious illness of which there is no coming back.

Tess the daughter in law of Eleanor, the person suffering through this relentless illness, is a woman doing her bit because she loves Eleanor's son Donn and she would do anything he asked of her. Being sent to the Gingerbread House of the title for three weeks whilst Eleanor's carer is away is not the ideal situation she would wish to find herself in. But when someone is in need we unquestionably drop everything and are there for that person through thick and thin. You don't stop and think I can't do this, you just get on with with it and although you find yourself doing things you never would want to do you just battle through. It's only when the situation may resolve itself in some form or other, be it happy or sad, you actually sit down and process what you have been through and begin to realise just how difficult things were, but that you did it because love and strength saw you through and you know said person would be forever grateful you did it for them and you can live comfortably with the thoughts of everything you did for them.

The Gingerbread House of the title is a house seemingly more or less isolated deep in the countryside and from the beginning there is a heavy, dark feeling almost like an oppressive weight bearing down. The atmosphere is tense and stifling and Tess finds herself dreading the daily routine of caring for Granny. The story is told from the perspective of Tess's teenage daughter Katia and I thought this was a brilliant way of telling the story as she built up a picture of Granny who is no longer the woman she once was. Routine is now everything to Granny as the moments of lucidity and sense are few and far between. It is just heartbreaking and devastating to see someone decline so much. It makes you think if you knew what was in store for you down the line would you be able to keep going or would you strive to live life to the fullest and grab every given opportunity? Katia was very very observant. She was like a shadow to her mother there for her when Tess had to do the most unpleasant of things in the care for Granny but I could identify with it all I have been through it myself although not in the form of dementia but still I found myself nodding along to everything attempting to read through the tears in my eyes.

Katia was the perfect person to tell this story and the use of the fairytale interspersed with the present day was something really different but brought an added dimension to the overall tone and feel of the story. The use of Charlotte's Web and The Little Mermaid was deftly slipped in at just the most appropriate of moments and normally I would dislike this in a story but here it worked beautifully. So much so that I found myself taking to both Tess and Katia. This book may sound like it is all doom and gloom and yes it could some readers may take that from this story but there was humour and a light touch when needed which provided a nice balance between the rigidity of Granny's routine and Eleanor and Katia's attempts at keeping everything going when they just want to give up. It's not often these days that I rave about a book and just want everyone to drop everything and read it now so I can discuss it with them but in this case The Gingerbread House is that book.

I find myself getting more and more pickier as to what makes a good book that keeps me reading and that makes me want to share that book love with others but Kate Beaufoy has written a brilliant book that has such a huge twist that was satisfyingly and successfully kept under wraps when it could have been given away all too easily. Suffice to say it tore me apart even further than I already had been and confirmed this is a sublime piece of work. I relished every bit of this incredible story and urge you to buy this book as soon as possible and treasure it for many years to come as you will come back to it more than once.

[Catherine Pinkett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I need to think about this. I didn't see the twist at the end coming which has floored me.

[Nicole Sweeney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review originally posted on The Bibliophile Chronicles.

This book is beautiful, moving and one I definitely won’t forget anytime soon. I read The Gingerbread House in just a few sittings, it’s such a gripping piece of writing that I kept going back to it and reading much longer than I’d planned. It would be possible to look at the title and thing this book might be a kind of light, fun read but instead it is poignant, and heart-breaking.

The book is writing in a really interesting way, the style feels very personal, which for me made it all the more heart-wrenching. The Gingerbread house is in some ways a difficult book to read, but I also think it’s a really important one. Of all the books I’ve read, I’m not sure I can recall a single book that focuses on dementia, and the hard work and difficulties it places on the family of the person. It was really interesting to read a book with this as its focal topic, and I definitely recommend everyone read it.

The other thing I really loved about The Gingerbread house was the humour. It is painful to read, but there’s also an element of dark humour that runs the whole way though, and makes for such a fascinating narrative. Similarly the characters feel very honest and well-written. They’re all very life like and human – finding their own ways to deal with such a difficult thing like dementia.

The Gingerbread House is a very touching book. It’s charming and heart breaking at the same time and I think it’s rare you find a book that can be both things at once. If you’re looking for a quick read – but one that will really make you think – then this is definitely the book for you. I must also point out how lovely the cover is!

[Margaret Madden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to follow...

[Sophie · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Gingerbread House is a book that I couldn’t stop thinking about whenever I put it down. When I read the blurb for it, a tale of three female generations of a family now affected by dementia, I knew this was a book I had to read. But The Gingerbread House, though only around 200 pages long, was far more moving and powerful that even my high expectations had thought it would be. The story inside is surprising and honest, sad and funny at the same time and it will make you consider every emotion each character is feeling and how you would respond in a similar situation.

Tess is a writer and so working from home means that when her mother-in-law Eleanor needs someone to care for her for a few weeks, Tess is the ideal cost-free choice. So the book sees Tess and her teenage daughter Katia move into The Gingerbread House where Eleanor lives. Tess’s husband Donn works a lot, but he is always just a phone call away and his dialogue with Tess brings a sense of light relief to a difficult story of an eighty-nine year old woman with dementia. Tess and Donn both have a dark sense of humour and one of my favourite parts of this book early on was the jokes they would share with each other. Humour is an important part of life when you’re caring for somebody and often it is those moments that get you a little further through the day. I could recognise that in Tess’s persona, how occasionally thinking back on those moments would put a brief smile on her face before she was back to being Eleanor’s carer – bathing her, cleaning up any messes, feeding her, putting David Attenborough on for her…

Katia narrates this book, which was something I found truly fascinating as she was a very interesting character. Wise beyond her years, I found Katia to be the perfect character to deliver this story. The way she tells the story is very inviting to the reader and allows us to pick up on small details, quick conversations and the mixture of emotions each character is feeling.

I found hearing about Tess through Katia’s eyes a very touching experience. Katia is very protective of her mum and sensitive towards her feelings which helps us see more of how caring for Eleanor is a harrowing experience for Tess. She struggles to keep her emotions in check at times and she feels isolated so any contact with the outside world is a welcome relief for Tess. I found she was a character I couldn’t help but respect as she was patient and calm with Eleanor despite how tough she was finding things. The book may appear repetitive in some ways, such as some of the things Tess would relay to Eleanor, but this was simply a true-to-life representation of what it is like in that situation and I found that Kate Beaufoy, who has had personal experience of caring for someone with dementia, told this story with sensitivity but also with great honesty, something which did the theme justice. I have not read many books that have made me cry recently but I will admit I did shed a tear at the end of The Gingerbread House. It is a frank and incredibly moving story which I will be recommending everybody to read.

[Courtney Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fourteen year old Katia is the only child of Donn and Tess. For three weeks her mother and she will be living with ‘the witch’; otherwise known as Eleanor, Katia’s 90 year old grandmother who is suffering from vascular dementia who requires around the clock care. This is normally taken care of by Lotus, the home help, but she is going to Malaysia because her daughter is getting married. Eleanor lives in a beautiful, slightly run down home that Katia refers to as The Gingerbread House, because it reminds her of the witches house in Hansel and Gretel.

Tess has just been made redundant from her work in the advertising industry and is going to replace Lotus in an attempt to earn some money and see if she could become Eleanor’s help full time, something she is resistant to, as being her mother-in-law’s physical carer is not what she wanted to do with her life. But the family can’t survive on what Donn brings in as a freelance journalist, so Tess’s hands are tied.

Katia is very observant for a fourteen year old girl. There isn’t much that escapes her attention.

**Do you know something? I sometimes think that my parents imagine that just because I cannot talk doesn’t mean I cannot hear. I hear everything. Katia is all ears.**

She shares a very intense visual of what her grandmothers body looks like, in great detail, which is none too flattering. She is aware of her mother’s drinking getting heavier and heavier as the weeks go on. She sees how her mother is quaking under the responsibility of taking care of Eleanor, but seems helpless to offer her mother anything but emotional support. But she does share her thoughts of the situation with Charlotte, the spider living in the tree house, named after one of her favourite literary characters from Charlotte’s Web. Literature is a very important part of Katia’s life. Something she shared with her parents, whom are artsy kinds of people.

Beaufoy isn’t afraid to take the reader down the very real pathway of life caring for an older person, exploring all the aspects that make it such a difficult, often thankless job. But the writing is so beautiful that one often forgets to be revolted or horrified and instead is entranced with problems such as the finer points of giving an elderly person a bath for example. Katia shares her conversations that often follow no discernible thread with her grandmother. She also shares that she wants to have conversations with her mother in her dreams. Little hints are scattered through the prose that one so often skips over, but there is a mystery involved within this novel, but its revelation leaves the reader feeling like they have had a blow to the belly.

There is a certain sadness and yet an undeniable relief at the closing of the story. It’s not a very long novel, but it is filled with beautiful turns of phrase. It unravels and slowly reveals the truth and the horror of life gone wrong. This piece is glorious and gentle, brutal and direct. It is well worth the time to read.

[Allie Cresswell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a few pages to get a handle on the youthful voice which tells this story, but once I had done, I was charmed!
Katie has lost her ability to speak. Katie's mum has lost her job. Katie's granny has lost her marbles and Katie's dad is losing his battle to hold his family together. Three weeks at Granny's house (the Gingerbread House) both tests and resolves all the issues. Understated, mundane, funny and touching, the everyday doings of a woman on the edge and a woman over the edge are observed by a mind which is naive and yet strangely wise, cynical, hopeful, trapped between womanhood and childhood.
I guessed the twist in the tale about halfway through, but the writer handled it with such delicacy and beauty that I didn't feel a bit as though I'd been short-changed.
I recommend this book.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful story that is very well written. In fact it felt like I was watching the story unravel as a tv drama, it was vividly descriptive.

It made me look at dementia in a different light and because the story was told by teenager Katina, it helped keep the story light hearted and gave dementia a different perspective. At times I felt sorry for Tess as she struggled to look after Eleanor but then at other times I could have slapped Tess for being insensitive.
I especially liked the references to Charlottes Web that Katia would make, this was my favourite story as a teenager and so I could really relate.

The ending left me with jaw ache where my mouth dropped open. This is one story that will stay with me forever and I can’t wait to read more books by Kate Beaufoy.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can't really recommend this book, unless you want to feel that life is completely pointless and miserable. It was recommended to me by someone who told me it was really good and there was a brilliant twist in the end. Unfortunately I worked out what the twist was about half-way through the book, and was completely certain by page 70 - you may say that this makes me a bit slow and I should have seen it coming earlier.

The good thing is that it does touch on a subject (caring for elderly parents with Alzheimer's) that is very difficult- and it does inject humour into this bleak subject. I just felt pretty miserable about it all by the end and need now to read something that doesn't deal with terrible realities at all, thank you.

[Hazel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still trying to decide if I enjoyed this or not. In the beginning I kept waiting for it to get going, but I suppose it was never meant to. It's not a gripping tale of twists and turns and a good 'story', but more of a narrative of the struggles of dementia and it was very poignant at times. Perhaps I've read too many psychological thrillers of late so this seemed a much slower pace. However it never lost my interest and I surprised myself by wanting to see it through to the end. It's certainly thought provoking and it slightly terrified me about who might be there to look after me in old age.

[Colleen Maclennan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad book about dementia, loss, growing old , losing your job because of redundancy, grief and love . There is not anything nice about dementia , for the person, family , friends and caregivers. This book clearly shows the struggles of growing old and how our society now is experiencing this. There is a lot more going on in this book however . Although the ending is surprising there were hints throughout the book. A worthwhile read that is heart breaking but hopeful.

[Cheryl Bellingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very thought provoking book it sounds all sweet but the subject matter does make you think. Tess moves in to take care of her mother-in-law for three weeks in an isolated old house. Eleanor is suffering from dementia. This book looks at the issues for both Tess and Eleanor. As a society we are living longer but is that a good thing ?

[Marcella · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
For a book that crams in a lot of "dad jokes", this book is also a truthful story about a grandmother with dementia, a mother trying to take care of her mother-in-law and the 14 year old granddaughter telling us the story. This book had a touch of magic, a touch of giggles and a touch of breaking your heart; an unexpected but amazing combination.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful, but all too true story about caring for a loved one with end stage dementia from a young granddaughter 's view. It was spot on and the heartache and heaviness it often carries in all family members.
The ending surprised me.
Thank you to netgalley for allowing me to read and provide and honest review of this book.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel that I should give this a higher rating because this isn't really a bad book but I just found it so hard to read. The dementia plotline rang very true to my actual experience of a grandma with dementia, which wasn't a bad thing but was sometimes upsetting.

Also, I think the twist was supposed to be a twist but I guessed it in the first 20 pages.

[David Livingstone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a book/genre I would usually read but I found it very interesting and I didn't want to put it down. Very easy to read. Dark humour used is quite commical.
I recommend to anyone wanting to try something different, specifically people who are experiencing giving care to friends or relatives whom suffer from dementia.

[Lynn Fraser · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dire. Completely unconvincing and self-indulgent narrative viewpoint. A 'twist' that was so predictable that I couldn't be bothered to get mad about it. This book seems to have been written by a marketing focus group and I'm annoyed with myself for being taken in sufficiently to buy it.

[Joyce Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story of Vascular Dementia.
It is fiction, but sadly it is a life, or death, sentence for so many people.
The book is so gentle and so brutally honest.
It is the scariest thing I have read in a long time.

[Lucy McLaurin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A glimpse into the life of a lady suffering dementia and the family trying to care for her. Sad and amusing which makes it feel more emotional.

Very touching and real.

I’d guessed the truth about Katia early on in the book, and that made it even more moving.

[Stephanie Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning book! I don't want to give anything away, but it's a master of psychology, love, grief, and mental health. Brilliantly done.

[Yvonne Rowland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Almost a short story rather than a novel. Sad, slightly chilling and beautifully written.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I almost gave up on this book. The ending was the only thing that saved it and I'm not sure it was worth it.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting story with a sad twist. I imagine it is exactly what living with a dementia sufferer would be like.