A Keeper: The Sunday Times Bestseller

Reviews

Sollenbum

Peering in, the contents were a bit of an anti-climax: a tiny yellow knitted booty and beneath that a thin pile of letters held together by an ancient cream ribbon. No, the lid lifted easily. The past and present are woven together very effectively, told basically from just the two perspectives—Elizabeth’s and Patricia’s.

Cathy

4. The narrative structure is elegantly woven to create suspense while respecting characterization. Someone had to put her affairs in order and, while Elizabeth didn’t have particularly fond memories of Buncarragh, she felt guilty knowing she’d been all her mother had. The corners were protected by small inlays of brass.

This novel is a inter-generational story about hard choices made by a family in the US + rural Ireland - then & now. She placed the box on the floor and knelt in front of it.

Wiping the dust from the lid, the dark sheen of the wood was revealed. Elizabeth slipped the first letter from the pile and began to read. I’m not usually a fan of authors narrating their own work but Graham Norton does a great job and the audio is very easy to listen to. I found both threads of the story compelling.

A situation within her own family causes shock and a sense of frustration at being so far away, unable to do anything, but she’s determined to carry on with her search. Walnut? Rural Ireland in the 1970s is brought to life incredibly well, with secrets, shocking moments and darkness threaded through the narrative. During Elizabeth’s search for her identity and the resulting discoveries about her mother’s lonely past, she feels regret for the young Patricia and also the mother whose life revolved around her daughter, even as she still feels the lack of displays of affection or love.

The story alternates between Elizabeth in the present and her mother Patricia in the past. While her teenage son, Zach has gone to stay with his father on the west coast, Elizabeth had taken the opportunity to travel to Ireland. A Keeper incorporates, among other things, wonderful storytelling and descriptive passages, sadness, lighter moments, loneliness and tragedy, evocatively and perceptively written with unexpected twists.

Finding the letters, and being the recipient of another very unexpected inheritance, alters Elizabeth’s plans as she embarks on a journey into the past and a search for the truth surrounding her birth. I loved the descriptions of Cork and the wild coastline, which added tons of atmosphere. Elizabeth is hoping she can get the house cleared and sold quickly so she can return home, but while packing up her mother’s belongings she finds a bundle of letters written by her father, a man she has never known.