My all time favourite author is Jodi Picoult and it is so hard to find an author that matches Jodi's writing style and an author I can find myself obsessed with. Charity Norman is close up there, with the topics that she explores and the way that she brings everything together. This was a fantastic book focusing on family relationships. I really enjoyed everything about this book and think I have found a new auto-read author

Remember Me is set in New Zealand, where Emily returns to, many years after she left, to visit her father Felix who has Alzheimer’s. Always in the background is the shadow of Leah, their neighbour who disappeared many years ago.
I’ve loved Charity Norman’s previous novels and Remember Me is an atmospheric, powerful and moving novel. It evokes a real sense of place and I found the relationship between Emily and her father very moving. It’s fairly slow paced but really picks up towards the end with a hugely unexpected and powerful ending. Recommended.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this digital ARC.

Oh my goodness I loved this so much. I could not stop talking about it. What an incredible book. Highly recommended

I was captivated from the beginning. I loved how the relationship between Emily and her father Felix grew the more they spent time together and made more difficult by him having dementia. It was beautifully written and I thought it was very sensitively written and heartbreaking at times. This is by far one of the best books I have read and will remain with me for a long time. Excellent.

This is my second novel by Charity n..both books have blown me way and each time I read one I think I have to read her whole back catalogue..

Emily’s Father, a retired Doctor, has Alzheimer’s…His home is littered with lists, messages to himself to remind him who of he is, who he was, who his children are..Emily returns to New Zealand to visit..her visit extends when she sees how vulnerable he is. She finds old friends, old memories ..Supporting Felix is frustrating as he dips in and out of lucidity and as he reveals more and more she is not sure what she should believe..As Felix and Emily try to plan for the future this inevitably provokes questions and tensions with Emily’s siblings.

This book is beautiful, intimate and compelling. The sense of place, a close knit and rural community intensifies the evolving story as each member of the community is connected - Felix was their Doctor, their friend, their neighbour..The relationship between Emily and Felix is so beautifully and tenderly observed. The fragile lines of their communication are frustrated by Felix’s Alzheimer’s which provokes behaviours and moods which blur and obscure their conversation and understanding; by Felix’s model of fatherhood which was silently proud, distant and preoccupied..His role as a Doctor frequently taking him away from them. As they play chess and cook together, shared memories peel back the layers of their relationship..This was so poignant and really connected with me on a personal level..
At about 4-30 this morning (don’t ask) I found the story within the story which took this novel to a whole other level and what was revealed utterly broke my heart. I simply sobbed. And I am left with this feeling of being changed, of feeling this story like a tender spot in my heart that I will never forget.

Emily Kirkland is going back to New Zealand to visit her father. Dr Felix Kirkland. Once a respected doctor in the community he is now suffering from dementia. Emily extends her stay as she realises her father is worse that she thought.
However, she begins to discover things about a friend Leah Parata who disappeared many years before.
This is such a beautifully descriptive story. A easy read but with difficult subjects handled sensitively.
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to see an ARC

I had a few download issues with the book and by the time it was sorted, the file had unfortunately been achieved. Happy to re-review if it becomes available again.

"They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.

A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman's disappearance twenty-five years ago.

After years of living overseas, Emily returns to New Zealand to care for her father who has dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time - and to glimpse shattering truths about his past.

Are some secrets best left buried?"

I have read several by Charity Norman, so was looking forward to this one and it did not disappoint. She dealt with tricky subjects like dementia sensitively. There are some lovely moments in the father/daughter relationship, as well as sad ones too, and the story left me moved.

His was a very gentle book with different themes running through it. I am normally a great Charity Norman fan but felt I wasn’t thoroughly engaged with the story until the ending which was quite perfect.

Another masterpiece from Charity Norman

This is a wonderful, multifaceted, beautifully written, evocative, immersive, thought provoking and very emotional story centered around the Kirkland and Parata families who are close friends and neighbours in a small remote New Zealand town. Combining the years old mystery disappearance of Leah Parata, a brilliant young ecologist and the dreadful realities of life when an ageing parent develops alzheimer's or a family member has Huntingdon's disease.

The description and sense of place in this novel is just fabulous . The author’s observation of what it means to live with a disease that strips the sufferer of all their dignity, leaving their families helplessly witnessing their disintegration is razor sharp and poignantly and sympathetically tackled.

The backdrop of the wild and unpredictable Ruahines dominates the horizon keeping Leah’s memory ever-present and the unease anxiety and suspense of her loss running throughout the novel. The characters, complex relationships, sibling resentment and hidden secrets are expertly unravelled and exposed as the 25 year anniversary of Leah's disappearance is once again investigated by reporters.

A powerhouse of a book which I absolutely loved.

This author never fails to have engaged from the first page to the last. A heartbreaking but humbling story about how despite their illnesses our parents are still the se people they always were. A lot of people will empathise so much with this story and at times it's a difficult read but still wonderfully written.

Remember Me by Charity Norman is a spellbinding book about a group of youngsters growing up and what happens to them when they are adults. There are many different twists and turns to the story about many serious issues that are a topical subject today.:- grooming, child sex abuse, child pornographers and post natal depression. All these subjects affect people mental health in various shapes and forms.
An interesting storyline about many serious issues.
Highly recommended

Emily is a children’s illustrator, who spent her childhood in Hawke’s Bay but now lives in London. One evening she receives a call from her father’s neighbour, Raewynn, letting her know that his Alzheimer’s has progressed and he needs a little help. Despite both her brother and sister still living in New Zealand, Raewynn thinks Emily is the one best disposed to make the right decision. Emily’s father is well known in the area and is still known as Dr. Fitzgerald despite his retirement. He still lives on the family’s homestead with his two dogs and next door Raewynn and her son Ira who rents and farms the Arapito land. Until now they’ve managed to look after Dr. Fitzgerald, but trusting Raewynn’s opinion Emily decides to travel to New Zealand and check on her father.

When she arrives she knows all is not well. She realises her father has become very adept at seeming okay. He’s worked out which stock questions to ask when someone’s on the phone, using listening skills to let the caller think they’ve had a deep conversation. She thinks he’s rather like a magician, creating a Dr Fitzgerald who everyone knows and recognises, while underneath feeling confused, bewildered and frightened. As Emily spends time in her childhood home, memories rise to the surface: the unhappiness of her mother; her father’s distraction and avoidance of his family; the terrible state of Manu, Raewynn’s husband, who deteriorated and died from Huntington’s; the disappearance of Raewynn’s daughter Leah, who was lost on their range of mountains and has never been found. Emily was the last one to see Leah alive and the loss of this vibrant and beautiful girl still haunts the whole valley, including Emily’s father.

Norman writes about Alzheimer’s with knowledge and compassion. I spent some time working in nursing homes and Dr Fitzgerald is in the cruellest stage of his disease; he knows it is happening and he’s embarrassed, scared and exhausted from trying to appear like his old self. As Raewynn observes, it will be a blessing when he’s gone past this stage and reaches the place where he doesn’t remember his old self any more. Every day it’s like watching the tide recede and as Emily settles in she can see this happening more, layers and layers of what she recognises as her dad slowly drifting away towards the evening and then rolling back in the next morning when he’s at his most lucid. She can see the symptom of ‘sun downing’ as her dad becomes more anxious and confused at night.. Then there are terrifying nights where he wakes screaming, doesn’t recognise her and can become violent. It’s exhausting and emotionally difficult when he doesn’t even remember the next day. Then there are the family conflicts over care, as her brother and sister feel he would be better off in the ominous sounding St. Patrick’s where he’d be safe. Of course the other benefit to St.Patrick’s is that the house and land could be sold, meaning they would receive their inheritance. Emily doesn’t want to think her siblings are mercenary, but they have always stuck together and don’t have any interest in the land or the family’s long relationship with Raewynn and Ira who farm their land.

I had a huge soft spot for Raewynn, she feels like a real ‘earth mother’ type of woman and is a pillar of quiet strength. She has fulfilled the mother role for Emily to an extent, once her own mother returned to Yorkshire and Raewynn was consistently there. It takes a strong woman to come through that slow deterioration of her husband’s health, until he wasn’t the man she loved any more. She doesn’t complain and they all loved him fiercely, but those who know the family closely, know how much Manu’s illness took out of them all. For them to go through the loss of Leah only two years later seems unspeakably cruel. For Emily there is survivor’s guilt and her sadness for Ira, who was her best friend. Now there may be change coming, on the twenty year anniversary of her disappearance. Raewynn and Emily are interviewed, in the hope of jogging someone’s memory, that a change of allegiance might urge someone to talk, or that someone’s conscience finally forces them to speak. In the meantime Emily is battling her siblings over her father’s wishes. Firstly, he gives her a living will drawn up by his solicitor and much to her surprise, the person he wants to speak for him at the end, is Emily. It’s a revelation that her rather remote and unavailable father trusts her to do the right thing. It’s also a revelation that he’s been keeping a file of her memories in the box next to his bed, all the way back to her hospital baby bracelet. However, this isn’t the only revelation in the box and what Emily finds here will blow so many lives wide open.

This is what Charity Norman does best. She shows how relationship dynamics change and even break when something unexpected happens. Her characters are real, because they are so well constructed psychologically. Her sense of place is incredible too, from the cold winds and the forbidding mountain range that is the farm’s backdrop to a Eden- like valley with a lushness of plant life that’s unexpected. Oh how unbelievably emotional I felt at the end of this book, not just a lump in my throat, but actual tears. Yet I also felt such a feeling of ‘rightness’ that it ended the way it should. Also the strange and unique sounding bagpipes and Haka at Leah’s memorial hit me at a deep level I didn’t expect. This writer is one of my favourites because she understands human beings, their incredible strengths and their hidden weaknesses. There is such emotional intelligence in this latest novel and it was my absolute pleasure to read it.

It’s been a long time since there’s been a new Charity Norman book so I was really looking forward to reading this. It didn’t disappoint. Heartbreaking and true to life..Charity never shys away fro:m the difficult things in life. Great book, highly recommended

Twenty five years ago d Leah Parata went missing after going for a hike in the mountains to study giant snails. Nothing was ever found of her, she just disappeared. Emily was the last person to seen her & after many years living in London she returns to New Zealand, as she is a book illustrator she can work anywhere. Her father Felix, is suffering from Alzheimer's & is becoming a danger to himself & others. Although her father was distant growing up, always busy working as a GP. Her brother & sister are keen for him to go into a residential home but Emily knows he would hate that. Naturally being back stirs up a lot of memories but as she spends time with her father she becomes closer to him but also worries about him. As the anniversary of Leah's disappearance draws near he seems to be regressing more & more.

This is an amazing story. The sympathetic way Felix's Alzheimer's is handled is sensitive & heart breaking. It is thought provoking too- is there a 'correct' way of dealing with end of life care? The story keeps the reader guessing. I read this in a day & it reinforced the reason Charity Norman is one of my favourite authors. Her book are all quite different but they are all full of characters that grab a hold & don't let go- not even when the book is finished. Thanks to Netgalley & the publisher for letting me read & review this book- I won't forget it any time soon!

Everyone remembers the day Leah Parata disappeared. Especially Emily as she was the last person to see her alive. Twenty five years later back in her home town and still nothing is known of Leah's fate, but Emily's priority is her ailing father Felix. Her once stoic and solid father is diminishing before her very eyes and she is at a loss what to do.

Charity Norman is one of my go to author's as she always manages to open my eyes to the trials and tribulations of other people's lives. The characters may be fictional but the difficulties they face are all too real. In Remember Me Norman highlights the effects of not one but two debilitating conditions. If not bad enough that Alzheimers and Huntington's Disease ravage the sufferer but all around them are seriously affected by seeing the person they know and love disappear before their very eyes. Emily and Felix's relationship was so touching to be privy to especially as they had such a fractured relationship before and now the father has lost all his pride and is dependant on his estranged daughter. Then their close family friends have had to have Huntington's Disease loom over the whole family and a missing person to deal with. What ensues are interlinked multilayered stories that turn from bad to worse. Everything slowly unravels before the reader's eyes and I couldn't help but wonder how, if anything would be resolved. Like real life just when you think things can't get any worse they do. Remember Me is an immensely thought provoking read which leaves your heart thoroughly decimated by the end.

Remember Me tells the story of a daughter, Emily returning to her childhood home to look after her father who has dementia. Emily, an illustrator for a children's book author, now living in the UK is the youngest of 3 siblings. Emily's dad, Dr Felix Kirkland, has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's and one day she receives a call from her dad’s neighbour, Raewyn Parata in New Zealand. Emily flies over to look after him for a few weeks. Emily doesn’t have a close relationship with her father and going back to her childhood home in New Zealand drags to the forefront memories she has suppressed for years, and one particular event; the disappearance of a friend and neighbour Dr Leah Parata 25 years ago, then aged 26. It’s the anniversary of her vanishing and Emily is asked to retell her story, being the last person who saw Leah.

With a fantastic array of supporting characters Remember Me touches on grief, loss, secrets, betrayal and forgiveness and takes the reader on an emotionally charged blast of compassion and warmth. I love everything about Charity Norman's terrifically alluring writing and you are missing out if you choose not to read this.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Allen & Unwin via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I'm a massive fan of Charity Norman's work. I read this slowly as her words are something to be savoured. I've just finished it and I'm in tears. A beautifully written, emotional story.

Unfortunately the download failed so I have been unable to read the full book. The beginning is dark but immediately pulls you in. I love the writing style and I imagine this would have been a great read if not for the technical issue.

I absolutely loved this book, it was very well written and researched. The setting and the characters were brought to life by her brilliant descriptions. I don't think that many of us have been untouched by the horrible illness that is dementia but the author dealt with it brilliantly. The story flowed throughout the book and I was quite sad to finish it. Highly recommend.