DESCRIPTION:
Can your heart belong somewhere that you’ve never called home?
When Erica gets a phone call to say her mother, Ione, is ill in St Lucia, she knows she must go to her. Though the island – the place of her mother’s birth – is somewhere that Erica has never seen as her homeland.
Even when the plane touches down in the tropical paradise, with its palm trees swaying in the island breeze, the sound of accents so like her mother’s own calling loud in the air, Erica doesn’t find herself wanting to stay a moment longer than she has to.
But stepping into her mother’s house, she is shocked by what she finds. Her mother’s memory is fading, her once-immaculate house is now dirty and messy, and she’s refusing help from anyone but family. And Erica knows she must stay with her, even though it means leaving everything else behind.
What she doesn’t know is that – even as her mother’s memories get worse – Ione still has a final gift for her daughter. Because the unspoken secrets of their past are about to emerge, changing everything Erica thought she knew about hermother, her home, and who she really is…
A captivating tale of grief, love, and what it means to find home, perfect for fans of Andrea Levy, Jojo Moyes and Amanda Prowse.
When Erica gets a phone call to say her mother, Ione, is ill in St Lucia, she knows she must go to her. Though the island – the place of her mother’s birth – is somewhere that Erica has never seen as her homeland.
Even when the plane touches down in the tropical paradise, with its palm trees swaying in the island breeze, the sound of accents so like her mother’s own calling loud in the air, Erica doesn’t find herself wanting to stay a moment longer than she has to.
But stepping into her mother’s house, she is shocked by what she finds. Her mother’s memory is fading, her once-immaculate house is now dirty and messy, and she’s refusing help from anyone but family. And Erica knows she must stay with her, even though it means leaving everything else behind.
What she doesn’t know is that – even as her mother’s memories get worse – Ione still has a final gift for her daughter. Because the unspoken secrets of their past are about to emerge, changing everything Erica thought she knew about hermother, her home, and who she really is…
A captivating tale of grief, love, and what it means to find home, perfect for fans of Andrea Levy, Jojo Moyes and Amanda Prowse.
Amazon: https://geni.us/B09QL7J4RSsocial
Title: My Mothers Gift
MY THOUGHTS:
Author: Steffanie Edward
Publisher: Bookouture
Genre: Women’s Fiction
Format: Kindle ARC
No. of Pages: 287
Date of Publication: March 22, 2022
My Rating: 5 Stars
A phone call from her beloved Auntie sends Erica to St. Lucia as her mother Ione really needs help. Ione has Alzheimer’s and it has become unsafe for her to remain alone in her home. Quite naturally, Erica drops everything and leaves London to see how she can best care for her mother.
Her ultimate goal is to bring her mother back home to London with her, but before that would be even possible, she must navigate some very choppy waters. For starters, her mother is even worse than she could have imagined and Erica quickly realizes that Ione’s safety is a great concern.
Erica experiences role reversal with her mother as Ione’s periods of lucidity are quite limited. What is not limited is Erica's love for her mother. Seeing Ione in this condition is unbearably painful.
What a heartbreaking book! I often read books from cover-to-cover in one sitting. Not so with My Mother’s Gift. Although I don’t have any relatives with dementia nor have I ever met anyone with the devastating condition, Steffanie Edward penned this book in such a way to make me feel all the pain, all the sadness and all of the loss. She definitely hit the ball out of the park when it came to the sensitivities surrounding dementia in fact, this book made me think of Lisa Genova’s equally heartbreaking book, Still Alice.
Thank you Ms. Edward for handling such a sensitive topic by coming from a place of love, caring and respect.
Many thanks to Bookouture and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.
Please also enjoy the video review of this title on YouTube:
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Anancy, Crick-crick and other Caribbean folk stories have been a part of her life since childhood. In her late teens she enjoyed reading Susan Howatch and books on slavery. Her absolute favourite reads have been Wild Seed by Octavia E Bulter, and Woman At Point Zero by Naawal El Saadawi.
Her writing career started with short stories, five of which have been published. Her first attempt at writing a novel was over twenty years ago, whilst living and working in Abu Dhabi. That novel, Yvette, didn’t make it into print, but the main protagonist, Yvette, has muscled her way into Steffanie’s debut novel, This Other Island.
https://www.saedward.com/
https://twitter.com/EdwardsaEdward
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