The Memory Box

(Paperback)

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Description

A powerful, dramatic and disturbing novel about the long shadow cast by the memory of a dead mother on the life of her daughter - another brilliant exploration of family mythology and guilt from a novelist who reigns supreme in this territory. Catherine's mother died when Catherine was just a baby girl, leaving nothing but her perfect reputation to live up to. Or so she thought. But then Catherine finds a box addressed to her, filled with objects seemingly without meaning - three feathers, an exotic seashell, a painting, a mirror, two prints, an address book, a map, a hat, a rucksack and a necklace. And while she's busy playing detective trying to find out who her mother was, she finds out more about herself than she ever really wanted to know. Secrets are discovered, truths uncovered, and Catherine realises that maybe there was something more to her mother, something that her familiy has kept from her. How long a shadow can a dead woman cast

Reviews

Moving, thought-provoking and utterly compelling, this novel is Margaret Forster at her very best * Daily Mail *
Like memory itself, it is subtle, full of secrets, and it lingers * Independent *
A compulsive read, beautifully written... with the same talent she displayed so brilliantly in Hidden Lives * Sunday Express *
Deft, unusual and very readable... Margaret Forster has again written a vivid and compulsive novel * Financial Times *

Author Bio

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs - Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses - and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.