One of the Richard and Judy Spring 2013 Book Club selections.
With complex and realistic characters, this is a compelling and emotional read. A family emigrate to rural New Zealand to start a new life but they can’t run from the past and the secrets which threaten to tear the family apart. Combining the skill of Jodi Picoult with the warmth of Anita Shreve, Charity Norman explores - with heart-thumping tension - a fresh start which goes very badly wrong.
In the quiet of a New Zealand winter's night, a rescue helicopter is sent to airlift a five-year-old boy with severe internal injuries. He's fallen from the upstairs veranda of an isolated farmhouse, and his condition is critical. At first, Finn's fall looks like a horrible accident; after all, he's prone to sleepwalking. Only his frantic mother, Martha McNamara, knows how it happened. And she isn't telling. Not yet. Maybe not ever. Tragedy isn't what the McNamara family expected when they moved to New Zealand. For Martha, it was an escape. For her artist husband Kit, it was a dream. For their small twin boys, it was an adventure. For sixteen-year-old Sacha, it was the start of a nightmare. They end up on the isolated east coast of the North Island, seemingly in the middle of a New Zealand tourism campaign. But their peaceful idyll is soon shattered as the choices Sacha makes lead the family down a path which threatens to destroy them all. Martha finds herself facing a series of impossible decisions, each with devastating consequences for her family.
'A gripping story, which touches on the fragility of trust, the strength of love and, of course, second chances. This is Norman's second novel. Her style is emerging as reminiscent of bestselling author Jodi Picoult.' - Sunday Canberra Times
'[An] insightful account of family dynamics' - The Age
Author
About Charity Norman
Charity Norman was born in Uganda and brought up in successive draughty vicarages in Yorkshire and Birmingham. After several years' travel she became a barrister, specialising in crime and family law. In 2002, realising that her three children had barely met her, she took a break from the law and moved with her family to New Zealand. REMEMBER ME is her seventh novel - the latest from the writer of Radio 2's and Clare Mackintosh's 2020 book club pick THE SECRETS OF STRANGERS, and the Richard & Judy bestseller AFTER THE FALL.
