I'll admit I couldn't get past the first 10% of this book - the incident of racism in the 70s UK (the float with Jay & his daughter) made this highly unpleasant, triggering, and not engaging at all to read, let alone enjoy. Don't know why the author decided to start with that, but it totally killed off my reading stride and I just couldn't get back in the book again. It kinda felt like gratuitous racism without any context and exploited for sensationalism - as someone with an Indian heritage, this felt triggering and abusive and I just could not get through. Mind, this could've been done in a less triggering way while also portraying the message intended, but as is, it just wasn't possible for me to read on.

This is a beautifully written book. It covers many timelines in many countries. I was invested in all of the stories within this sweeping saga.. a tremendous book

I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

The Ash Museum takes readers on a profound and intergenerational journey that traverses time, continents, and the intricacies of the human experience. While initially challenging to immerse yourself in due to its non-linear timeline and frequent shifts between characters and periods, this book gradually unfolds into an engrossing and rewarding narrative.

The book can be viewed as a tale of two halves. In the first half, there may be a struggle to establish a connection with the story, as the disconcerting nature of the narrative structure requires time to adjust. However, perseverance brings rewards as the second half captivates with its vibrant characters and enriched narrative flow. For this reason, I found it difficult to decide how to rate the story!

At the core of The Ash Museum lie poignant themes of family, loss, and the circle of life. While the plot itself may not take centre stage, it is the depth and development of the characters that truly shine. The author artfully crafts multifaceted individuals who evoke empathy, weaving their lives together across generations. Through their stories, the author examines the profound desire to belong and the intricate emotional landscapes of human relationships.

The book's emotional impact is undeniably potent, evoking a strong response that tugs at the heartstrings. Moments of intense poignancy may even elicit tears, as you become deeply invested in the characters' joys and sorrows.

The Ash Museum distinguishes itself through its focus on the beauty of the ordinary. Life's essence is masterfully captured through subtle details and snapshots of everyday existence. It is in these seemingly mundane moments that the book finds its power, illuminating the significance of the ordinary in shaping our lives.

Through the tale's vivid and beautifully crafted prose, the author invites readers to reflect on the universal human quest for a place to call home - a place where you can authentically belong. While it may require some initial effort to acclimate to the narrative style, the rewards are plentiful. Rebecca Smith's writing style, full of evocative descriptions and nuanced characterisations, breathes life into the pages. This renders the journey through The Ash Museum a captivating and thought-provoking experience.

The Ash Museum stands as a testament to the power of storytelling and the resilience of the human spirit. It delves into profound themes of family, identity, and the pursuit of a place to fit in. With its poignant exploration of ordinary moments and its powerful emotional resonance, this book is sure to linger in your mind long after the final page is turned.

Through ten decades and across three continents, The Ash Museum is an intergenerational story of loss, migration and the search for somewhere to feel at home.

1944. The Battle of Kohima. James Ash dies leaving behind two families: his ‘wife’ Josmi and two children, Jay and Molly, and his parents and sister in England who know nothing about his Indian family.
2012. Emmie is raising her own daughter, Jasmine, in a world she wants to be very different from the racist England of her childhood. Her father, Jay, doesn’t even have a photograph of the mother he lost and still refuses to discuss his life in India. Emmie finds comfort in the local museum – a treasure trove of another family’s stories and artefacts.
Little does Emmie know that with each generation, her own story holds secrets and fascinations that she could only dream of.

After the death of my husband in 2007, I had the task of sorting through his belongings and lurking beneath the things we had collected as a couple, were other precious artefacts that preceded our years together. There were photographs of school parties and trips, mementoes of his university years as he played sport in different countries, then almost falling apart a box of seemingly mundane items like bus tickets, leaflets of attractions visited and handwritten lists. What I’d stumbled upon was an old memory box from his childhood, created from items he’d collected on a trip to the continent with his Mum. I bought a smart scrap book and slowly transferred everything over along with photographs and excerpts from a travel diary written by him aged 11. I parcelled it up and sent it to New Zealand for his brother, hoping that these curated memories would remind him of a mum and a brother now lost. I was aware of the significance of everyday items from that point. What may seem like rubbish starts to tell a story when gathered together and placed in a certain order.

Every family probably has similar scrappy and unloved items that, if collected and presented well, could tell a story of previous generations or stir up memories of those we love, now lost to us. In The Ash Museum the author brings the Ash family back to life through similar curated cuttings, photographs and tickets to those I found. The author draws our attention to Emmie, who grew up in the 1970s, and takes us on a trip through her life to the year 2012. Like a series of Russian dolls, within Emmie are the stories of her ancestors. Most fascinating is grandfather James who worked as a plantation manager in India and kept a secret ‘wife’ with whom he had two children. Then there was the son of this hidden family, and all of his relatives still living in Britain who don’t know he exists. The story that makes up the largest section of the novel, is Emmie’s father Jay recounting his experiences of a village fete with his young daughter. This setting is perfect to explore assumptions and judgements experienced by people who were seen as different in the 1970s. There are behaviours on display here that are painful, offensive, and would hopefully be called out as racism in our own time. However, this experience of growing up as a person of colour in that time is not one dimensional, there is complexity and hints of many different subtexts. We are shown that Emmie’s upbringing has allowed her to flourish, she has a warm and welcoming attitude to others and enjoys her friendships. She’s decisive, knows what she wants in life, but can cope with challenges and life changes. She’s open and has an affinity with the objects found in a family museum with few visitors, especially tiny objects that remind her of those previous generations. Generations like the one where a young woman called Josmi, working in the tea fields of India, becomes an invisible wife. She will have children who are loved, but struggle with the changes of a new lifestyle away from their home.

The book begins with an introduction, to the Ash Museum, “telling the story of one hundred years of the Ash family”. The tone is welcoming and I felt invited in to share these family stories. The author writes in a gently humorous way, that balances out the moving and emotional parts of this family story. The structure is based around individual events and experiences, represented by everyday objects that are the key to unlock the story. She manages to conjure deeply poignant events that shape a family such as loss and new life; a series of beginnings and endings marked by an old atlas, postcards, broken china and an old school uniform each one catalogued by a museum label. I thought the writing and the structure flowed beautifully, despite being a series of curated fragments encompassing such different time periods and the incredible wealth and depth of human experience. Instead of being confusing, I felt that this movement between times and character is actually one of the book’s greatest strengths. It allows for flexibility within the narrative, presenting a range of long and short stories, with different tones and historical contexts to consider. However, no matter where or when we travel with an exhibit, we experience relatable emotions and empathy for the characters. In fact those tidy and informative labels are only the surface, until the story takes us deeper into the strong emotions, the sense of injustice and the excitement about life events, once felt long ago. This lovely book combines historical fiction with contemporary life, giving us a vivid insight into the lives of the women in this family, the importance of family stories, and the impact of memories on our well-being. I became completely absorbed in these everyday objects and the extraordinary variety of the stories hidden within them.

This is a very sad but heartwarming story. I enjoyed the writing and the character development. It is hard to get attached to a book after reading few pages but the author had the ability to engage readers in a great story.

This was a gorgeous book spanning 3 decades from 1944 to 2012. I love multigenerational tales and this one did not disappoint. It touches on many difficult topics but I appreciated the way the book portrayed how this family dealt with racism. I also quite enjoyed the bits of pop culture sprinkled in.

Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Legend Press for an e-ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you to the website net galley and the publisher for allowing me to have access to read this book.

I thought this was a very interesting book it’s not the usual genre that I read so I thought I would give it a go and it was really good usually I’m not great with historical related books but I think this was actually memorable and very in-depth I thought that the descriptions are really good and overall I would rate it that I liked it but I don’t think the genre was for me personally so I would rate it 3 out of 5 stars

A lovely gentle book that is beautifully written and tells the story of times gone past, when the world was a different place, despite much of it being within living memory. I loved following the back and forth nature of the chapters and joining the dots together. Emmie and her family members seem so very real and believable and their stories could be those of the people in your street. A fantastic summer read.

This is a story that runs through generations, through time and countries. It is a story that goes from past, 1944 The Battle of Kohima, and a young man dying to present, 2012 and a woman who is looking to find her past in order to make the future a better place for her daughter.

There are hard topics in this book, real topics, it is emotional, it pulls you in and makes you listen. You can't help but feel for the characters in this story. It is a wonderful, enthralling, emotional, absorbing and heartfelt book.

It is a well written book with characters that you believe and believe in. It takes you to places you've never been before which I love in a good book. And it takes you on a journey that is hard but is rewarding.

Love this book and highly recommend it.

Great characters and a fascinating storyline. I absolutely loved this book, it follows Emmie's story and jumps back and forth between her great grandparents, grandparents and parents lives and demonstrates how times have changed.

This was a very unique layout to a book, by centering around objects at points of time in the lives of family members it is a series of vignettes across many decades. I was drawn into many of the characters and their diverse experiences. It also provides insight into colonial India and the everyday life and relationships. I really enjoyed this book but there were some gaps in the story I would have liked to learn more about.

Really enjoyed this book! It was the first one for me to read by this author and I can't wait to read more! The characters stick with you long after the book is over.

Written in chapters which act as various items and areas of a museum, this has to be one of the most unusual and unique stories I have read in a while.. IT can get a bit choppy and meandering at times but stand back and you can appreciate the full picture.

The story of the Ash family brings up all kinds of emotions and feels. From India via Canada to England, we hear of how one family has their stories and how these stories come together to form a fascinating thread - all the objects in the museum.. There are very emotional themes here and racism stands out as being the strongest and most explored. There are very sad moments such as bullying and when one character can't even talk of the past.

Ah this is quite hard to review. I liked it but didn't love it as it did feel disjointed and more like a series of vignettes rather than a complete novel.

GoodReads post:

Beautifully written, filled with characters you fall in love with and with such vivid detail (collecting Green Shield Stamps!) that I was truly sorry to finish (very) late last night. I suspect I'll be enjoying it again in a couple of years time.

Many thanks to the author and to Legend Press for publishing such a lovely book and for the opportunity to review it.

The Ash Museum follows the story of the Ash family over many generations. The book flows in and out of four generations and reads from the perspective of different family members. It's explores bonds over generations and how familial relationships develop and evolve.

I enjoyed this book and particularly enjoyed how it was laid out. I liked that each chapter focuses on the memories associated with a specific object. It made me think about how we have so many things in our day to day life that may seem ordinary to others but that make us stop and think and elicit certain memories.

I also enjoyed the authors writing style. Changing with each person's perspective, you could tell which era they were set in and at what stage in their life. For example, the way Emmie's thoughts were communicated, clearly shows her transition from being a child, to a young adult, and to being a mother.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely enjoyed this book, it follows Emmie's story and jumps back and forth between her great grandparents, grandparents and parents lives and demonstrates how times have changed.

It touches on racial inequality, her granddad was a white man who fell in love with an Indian girl..
Emmie is the central character and her life is impacted for better and worse throughout the story ending on a high note,

I feel in love with all of the characters and must admit given my mothers side of the family is Indian and my fathers is English I could emphasise on a lot of her very real experiences, anxieties and hopes, ,