5★
“‘We’re the only people left alive who know it.’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Yes. Just you and me.’

‘Then we’re free,’ he said. ‘Finally, you and I are free.’”

I’m not a great fan of romance novels. I like character and plot and tension that isn’t just flutterings of “be still my foolish heart”. There is plenty of weak-kneed shock and overwhelming compulsion to flout the rules (and current commitments), but there’s quite a story here as well.

We meet Robbie and Emily in Maine in 2016 as they celebrate their 43rd anniversary and are now facing Robbie’s increasing forgetfulness. He’s a life-long sailor, and many passages in the book use sailing terms and analogies to great advantage. You don’t need to know beans about sailing to appreciate how Robbie describes his failing memory:

“It was like the fog that came in silently and out of nowhere, and socked you in so solid you couldn’t see a single thing, not even your own sails. . . . You were in waters you knew like the back of your hand, but you couldn’t tell where you were.”

Emily absorbed his world, just soaked it up as she spent time around the boats and workshop.

“He’d built this boat. He hadn’t said so, but she could feel Robbie in the curve of the bow, the blunt end of the stern.”

The author works her way back in time to Emily’s medical school days in Cambridge when she and Robbie first crossed paths accidentally a couple of times in a couple of days. They both felt an instant attraction, but he’s sailing a yacht around the world for an American businessman (Robbie is American), and she, of course, is studying hard for her degree, to be a good English doctor like her adored father.

We jump a bit back and forth in time, but it’s not confusing, as it’s quite obvious from the storyline where we are and why. Her family has disowned her, he has a bitter first wife who moved away with his son and cut off all contact, so Emily and Robbie have been together alone much of the time. We are reminded often that “their love could only last if silence held it together in certain places.”

The story moves between England and Florida and Maine, and there are just enough characters for us to sympathise both with their family situations and with their desire to commit to each other and be together. He has flashbacks to Vietnam while she feels guilt for not practicing medicine in third-world countries where she could make such a difference.

It’s a compelling story, beautifully told. It comes full circle and the gaps are eventually filled in.

You’d think the obstacles in their way, the hurdles, and the complications would make their getting together impossible. You’d think. You’d be wrong. Whether others could overcome these as they did will be the subject of much discussion, I imagine. But no spoilers here!

Thanks to NetGalley and Hachette Australia for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted, so quotes may have changed.

‘He thinks about you every day. He doesn’t talk about you every day, but sometimes we don’t talk about the most important things to us. Sometimes we can’t.’

Do books often come along at a poignant time in a person’s life? This is such an interesting little book on so many platforms. It is well written and thought provoking, as it shines a light on relationships and family dynamics. However, let me say right from the outset, this is not a soppy, teary book because of romance - there is so much more involved in this little story that really packs a punch.

‘No. I think it’s most likely Alzheimer’s.’ She was brave. Her voice didn’t waver at all when she said it.’

‘Sometimes people just have to stay distant,’ she said.’

‘Emily stepped forward, feeling, for the first time, a stirring of anger at her own family.’

It took me a little while to get into this book. I had to put it down and come back to it a week later, as I did not think I was in the right frame of mind to read it. Starting with a devastating event, I was unsure if I was up for the journey. However, it all changed after a couple of chapters and I shall tell you why.

The book is written backwards. Highly unusual and requires flicking back and forth as the brain does not really compute that way. But really, when you think about it, it is probably the only way this tale could be told. From a writing perspective, it is quite incredible and most definitely unique - at the end you want to go back to the beginning and read it over with fresh eyes.

The author presents Robbie and Emily at key stages of their lives, commencing at 2016 until the final date of 1962 - which is of course, the beginning and when they first met. Each stage reveals a little more of the story, but also leaves with you with questions. There are twists and turns along the way, and the ending .... wow .... I did not see that coming. Then, and only then, do all the pieces fall into place regarding Emily and why she is estranged from her family. The ‘mystery’ that had been hovering over story up until this moment is revealed.

Overall, this is an unusual book, for both the way it is set out and the issues it tackles. Try not to let that distract you from what is in fact, a most thought provoking tale.

‘Sometimes we don’t know the moments that are going to be significant to us, not until later when we look back and reflect.’


This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher and provided through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release