Remember Me: Winner of the 2023 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Novel (Charity Norman Reading-Group Fiction) Paperback – Import, 3 March 2022

This is a beautifully written family drama woven around an old mystery. Perfectly paced with finely drawn flawed characters and relationships, at the heart of it is a tender but ill-fated love story.Emily Kirkland is living in London after leaving New Zealand many years before. The last time she saw her father, Felix was three years ago when she visited with her teenage son Nathan. She noticed he had a few odd eccentricities, but didn’t guess he was hiding the early stages of Alzheimer’s. When she receives a call from Felix’s neighbour and close friend Raewyn to tell her his Alzheimer’s has become quite advanced and he is having trouble coping she travels to Hawkes Bay to assess the situation for herself.Emily didn’t have a close relationship with her father while she was growing up. He was often remote, absorbed in his work and always found it hard to show love for his children, although she does remember some happy moments with him. Her twin older siblings live in Auckland, both married with children and busy jobs and unwilling to help, insisting he needs to go into a nursing home. After being the local GP for most of his life, including attending to those in the nursing home, that’s the last thing he wants and Emily refuses to let that happen.Once Emily sees the extent of Felix’s decline, she extends her stay, working remotely on her job illustrating children’s books. She’s grateful that Raewyn and her son Ira also support him and help to care for him in practical ways. The families have always been close since Felix diagnosed and treated Raewyn’s husband Manu for Huntington’s disease. Not long after Manu died, Raewyn’s daughter Leah disappeared in the mountains while conducting conservation research. Felix helped in the search for her, but she was never found.During his lucid moments, Emily gets to know Felix better as he opens up a little. He does not trust his selfish older children to look out for his best interests and singles Emily out to oversee his wishes after his death. He also gives her an envelope to open once has died, the contents of which will have repercussions for all around him.I loved the way this novel builds up slowly to be a dramatic and moving read, carefully setting the scene so that the emotional ending is perfectly rendered. Emily is a gentle and compassionate with an inbuilt resilience that helps her cope with her difficult family, while the depiction of Felix’s accelerating decline into the horror and confusion that is Alzheimer’s is really well depicted. The location of Hawke’s Bay is also an important element in the novel with the rugged mountains looming over the farmland around the town and the atmospheric weather and landscapes adding to the unsettled feel of the events and the decades old mystery. Highly recommended!

This novel is at once a mystery and love story. The characters are believable and interesting. Their relationships are beautifully described and well formed. Highly recommended!

WOW, what a great novel. Loved that it was set in NZ. I didn't see the end coming. Beautifully written and thoroughly enjoyed.Keep writing - please.

２０１９年冬、ニュージーランドに年老いた父を残して欧州で働く「私」エミリーに電話がかかってきた。昔からの隣人で父の面倒をみてくれているラエウインおばさんからだ。「お父さんのアルツハイマーが酷くなって手に負えないよ、すぐ来て！」というので大急ぎで実家に駆けつけると、玄関で父が「どなたかな？」と言うではないか。欧州で家庭を持っている姉、兄は「早く施設にいれろ」とせっつくが斑ボケの父が頑として家を出ようとしない。「私」はお隣りラエウインおばさんの娘リアちゃんと幼馴染みだったが　２５年前はこの地で名の知れた医師の父は５０歳で「私」は２１歳、新任医師リア２６歳のとき山歩きに出かけたリアが突然行方知れずとなり、以来　心のどこかにリアのことがひっかかっていた。あるとき父の手函をみつけて中の写真や手紙で驚いた。そこからリアと父の秘めたる関係が窺われ、父が「死後開封のこと」と「私」に手渡した書類に恐ろしいことが書いてある予感がした。リアの怨念か？父の秘密か？　リアの母ラエウインおばさんを巻き込んだ修羅場が蓋を開ける！　読むのが初めての作家だったがニュージーランドを舞台にした家族の葛藤を描く人のようで、別の作でレビューアーがPowerful family storyと言っていたが　今作もその味を一杯に盛った力作だった。

This story is told beautifully by Charity Norman. As always her characters are interesting and the story keeps you enthralled, with family politics often complicating the issue. Hints about a mystery build to the unexpected end. I had difficulty putting the book down from Page 1, as I have with the two others of hers I’ve read so far. Definitely recommended reading.