Just as Zoe’s about to head down the aisle to marry Jamie, she receives an unexpected phone call, telling her that her mother Gina, who she hasn’t seen or spoken to for years, has been arrested and needs her to come and get her. In that instant Zoe takes the decision to leave Jamie at the altar and go to her mother’s rescue, but the woman she finds at the police station is a far cry from the mother she once knew. It’s clear that Gina is losing her memory, and for Zoe that means not only losing her fiance but losing her mother all over again. It was really refreshing to see a story in which the focus is on maternal rather than romantic love and I loved this emphasis on the mother-daughter relationship above all else. Marsh alternates her chapters between the present-day story from Zoe’s perspective and letters Gina writes to Zoe on her birthday across the years and these letters were a beautiful and integral factor in the novel’s power. Indeed, they wonderfully depict both a mother’s love and her heartbreak. Outside of these letters, the narrative moves quite fast and there were moments, especially with Gina’s illness, where it would have been nice to slow down and focus in on developments. Also because the story focuses predominantly on Gina and Zoe’s relationship, and understandably so given theirs is the estranged one, other daughter Lily felt something of an outsider, almost second-best, and there was part of me that would have liked to have seen dual narration telling the story of both sisters, or at the very least Gina’s letters to Lily alongside those to Zoe. Nevertheless this is an impressive, compelling read, whose message to forgive before it’s too late and make the most of one’s time with family really hits home. (JC)
