Review: REMEMBER ME

REMEMBER ME by Charity Norman (Allen & Unwin, 2022)

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson

They never found Leah Parata. Not a boot, not a backpack, not a turquoise beanie. After she left me that day, she vanished off the face of the earth.

A close-knit community is ripped apart by disturbing revelations that cast new light on a young woman's disappearance twenty-five years ago.

After years of living overseas, Emily Kirkland returns to New Zealand to care for her father, Felix, who suffers from dementia. As his memory fades and his guard slips, she begins to understand him for the first time - and to glimpse shattering truths about his past. Truths she'd rather were kept buried.

Recently I was interviewed by the New Zealand Listener (a turnabout - I'm usually the one doing the interviewing) about the 'Books of My Life' - various books that have had an impact on me in childhood and as an adult. 

One of the questions was: "Which was the last book that made you laugh or cry?" The answer on the 'cry' front was this outstanding novel: REMEMBER ME by Charity Norman, a Ugandan-born storyteller who grew up among UK vicarages and has lived the past two decades in rural New Zealand. 

After Norman's tense London-set hostage thriller THE SECRETS OF STRANGERS, which was shortlisted for Best International Crime Fiction at the Ned Kelly Awards and Best Novel at the Ngaio Marsh Awards, Norman now ‘returns home’, taking readers deep into the small towns and wild landscapes of central Hawke’s Bay. REMEMBER ME is an eloquent, heart-breaking tale that meshes family drama with rural suspense. Children’s illustrator Eliza Kirkland returns from London to help her aging father, a retired doctor whose personality is now melting away. The culprit: Alzheimer’s.

Back in her childhood home in the foothills of the Ruahine Ranges, Eliza is assaulted by memories, past tragedies, and secrets. A quarter century ago she was the last person to see neighbour Leah Parata before the young PhD scientist vanished. Norman takes readers on an emotional journey as Eliza deals with her father’s disease, family strife, and stumbles over troubling connections to Leah among her father’s possessions. Has this stoic man, who helped lead the search team that combed the mountains for Leah, been keeping a horrible secret for 25 years? 

Norman does a terrific job immersing readers in Eliza's upturned life, and the landscapes of rural Hawke's Bay. REMEMBER ME is an absorbing, slow-burn thriller-cum-family drama that's beautifully written and evocative. A terrific read from a master storyteller. Highly recommended. 

Craig Sisterson is a lawyer turned features writer who's interviewed hundreds of crime writers and talked about the genre on national radio, top podcasts, and onstage at festivals on three continents. He's been a judge of Australian, Scottish, and NZ crime writing awards, and is co-founder of Rotorua Noir. He's the author of the HRF Keating award-shortlisted non-fiction book SOUTHERN CROSS CRIME, and the series editor of acclaimed anthology DARK DEEDS DOWN UNDER. You can heckle him on Twitter.