Member Reviews
Carla J, Reviewer
The One I Was is a triple timeline story with a historical fiction timeline set during WW2, a family drama saga set somewhere around the 1950s and finally the early 1980s. Benjamin Goldman, first came to Fairfleet, a manor house in England, in 1939, having fled Nazi Germany on a Kindertransport train. The beginning of the story shares Benny's story of trying to assimilate into life in Britain. The second storyline shared the story of a young Rose Madison, the granddaughter of the owners of Fairfleet. When her grandmother dies of a burst appendix, Rose's mother has to move into Fairfleet and take care of her children Rose and Andrew. She has some mental health issues, so is an easy target for Cathal Pearse, a drifter that starts as a handyman, but eventually moves in. We know that Rose's mother dies and they go to live with their father, but that mystery reveals itself later in the book. The final timeline brings Rosamund Hunter back to Fairfleet to take care of a hospice patient, Benny Gault, who bought Fairfleet when there was a forced sale. As memories come back to Rosamund, the story of her family and Fairfleet unravels.
There is a lot going on in Eliza Graham's novel, The One I Was. It moves between three time periods that connect Benny and Rosamond's individual stories to each other, though they are strangers when they meet. I enjoyed Benny's story where the reader learns about the transitions for those who came to England on the Kindertransports. The timeline with Rosie and Andrew dealing with the man who has moved into their home was haunting. I was on the edge of my seat at times waiting to see what would happen next. It was scary. The characters were well developed and the the story well written. The main theme and the tie in of the title is the idea of reinventing oneself. It runs through the story, and shows us why people would do this. There is also a mental health theme with their mother dealing with serious depression, and Cathal being a psychopath. The final piece has Benny needing to unburden himself to Rosamund about something he had done in his youth. I'm not sure if that bit was necessary, or whether it really adds to the story. Overall, I enjoyed this book and felt the author did a great job pulling all those storylines together.
