A beautiful, moving book with a mystery. I love the pink-and-yellow Battenberg cake cover, taking me back to many a teatime with my grandparents (although personally I can’t stand the stuff). The story opens with 84-year-old Florence after she has had a fall in her flat at Cherry Tree sheltered housing and is hoping for someone to notice her plight. As she lies there patiently waiting, we revisit the past few months of her life.
A mystery has been consuming her: why does the newcomer in the flat opposite look exactly like a man she knows to have been dead for years, and why do the things in her flat keep moving about? She enlists the aid of residents Elsie, and Jack, to help unravel the facts, which includes some ill-advised outings and a trip to seaside resort Whitby. But Florence is also suffering from the confusion of old age, and can’t trust her mind or her memories anymore. There are secrets there, but she can’t quite reach them.
We also see the situation from the point of view of Simon, the handyman at Cherry Tree and Miss Ambrose, one of the wardens, who are struggling with their own disappointments in life. It’s a story of loss, remembering, challenge, the questions of old age, Florence’s rage against becoming irrelevant and overlooked, and a search for meaning in an ordinary life. Also the loyalty of lifelong friendship. Joanna Cannon’s words are gentle and thought-provoking, but don’t think this is just a book about old age. It’s about every age, and every one of us.
