My best friend suggested I pick up a book from last year, Kate Storey’s The Memory Library. I cried over it, and stayed up way too late to finish it, so that’s just a warning if you decide to pick it up. It’s a book about family, misunderstandings, and books.

Sally Harrison’s daughter, Ella, fled to Australia twenty-one years ago after an argument. They’ve only had short, cold conversations since. But, when Sally fell and broke one arm and injured the other, Ella reluctantly comes home to London for a month. She’s still resentful, but Ella’s husband, Charlie, insists she’s needed more in London with her mother than she is in Sydney.

Ella is horrified to find how her childhood home is now rundown. But, she always thought her mother had the money to maintain her home after Ella’s beloved father died. Now, with a month to assist her mother, Ella discovers she misunderstood some of her family’s past.

What Ella never misunderstood was her mother’s love of books, and her love of sharing her favorite books. For forty-two years, Sally bought a special book every year and inscribed it for Ella’s birthday. Even the years when Ella was distant, emotionally and physically, Sally found a special book to share. Now, Ella finds that entire library ruined by water, and locked away. But, the library is what brings Ella closer to her mother, and leads to discoveries, to what she never understood about her own mother.

Donna (my friend) warned me to stick with the book because Ella is not easy to like at the beginning of The Memory Library. But, it’s a beautiful story filled with love, and family, and books. And, it’s those books that bring so much of the love and family to this story. The Memory Library was just the kind of book I needed right now.

The Memory Library by Kate Storey. Avon, 2024. ISBN 9780008658540 (paperback), 326p.

FTC Full Disclosure – Library book