I had the pleasure of delving into "The Museum of Forgotten Memories" by Anstey Harris, and it was an exceptional literary journey. This author's storytelling prowess is nothing short of extraordinary. They skillfully wove a tapestry of nostalgia, emotion, and enchantment that resonated deeply with me.

The characters were brilliantly developed, each with their own distinct voice and compelling backstories. The way the author explored the themes of memory, loss, and human connection was both thought-provoking and heartwarming. The book's premise of a museum dedicated to forgotten memories is a stroke of genius, and it adds a unique and captivating layer to the narrative.

The prose is elegant and evocative, drawing readers into a world that feels both familiar and otherworldly. "The Museum of Forgotten Memories" is a literary gem that will remain etched in my own memory for years to come. I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's a must-read for anyone who craves a rich and emotionally resonant storytelling experience.

The cover of this book really captivated me. The plot is refreshing and unique, the grief and loss was really good. All of the characters were really fascinating. Amazing book 4/5

Four years following her husbands suicide. Cate and their son Leo are in dire straits. Let go from her job and unable to pay her bills Cate packs up their old life and moves to the property left to them by Richard, an old museum in a small town. Here she must face up to some home truths in order to make a new life for herself and her son.

I was looking forward to reading Anstey Harris’ second novel as I adored her first so much, this was just as great.

EXCERPT: She grinds her shoe against the floorboards, tips the toe of it onto the rug. The black leather is dusty grey with what is left of summer. 'I wondered for years if I should have told the truth. And then, when Richard . . . you know.'

I have no idea what to say next. I am a dumb beast and my body has been replaced with the mounted frame of one of the animals. My eyes are glass and staring, my mouth is full of plaster teeth, solid pink stone tongue.

The house has claimed me as it's own.

I try to remember that this loss belongs to her too - the loss of the brother she loved and hadn't been able to see for years - but there isn't room in my hurt heart for other people's problems.

'And that's it?' I am reeling. One stupid conversation, one banal argument. One single moment that ricocheted through my family for years: that cast a shadow over my whole marriage. 'That's the whole reason he never spoke to his grandfather again? Ever? Just a family secret?'

'Family secrets can be huge, Cate.' She gestures at herself. 'They destroy those who know them and they torture those who are outside them.'

ABOUT THIS BOOK: Cate Morris thought she’d met her match in Simon at university—until she laid eyes on his best friend, Richard. Cate and Richard felt an immediate and undeniable spark, but Richard also felt the weight of the world more deeply than most.

Now, four years after Richard’s suicide, Cate is let go from her teaching job and can’t pay the rent on the London flat she shares with her and Richard’s son, Leo. She packs the two of them up and ventures to Richard’s grandfather’s old Victorian museum in the small town of Crouch-on-Sea, where the dusty staff quarters await her. Despite growing pains and a grouchy caretaker, Cate falls in love with the quirky taxidermy exhibits and sprawling grounds and makes it her mission to revive them. When the museum is faced with closure because of a lack of visitors, Cate stages a grand reopening, but threats from both inside and outside the museum derail her plans and send her spiraling into self-doubt.

As Cate becomes more invested in Hatters, she must finally confront the reality of Richard’s death—and the role she played in it—in order to reimagine her future.

MY THOUGHTS: What a magnificent read! Harris writes with a lyrical realism. She takes tough subjects: grief, suicide, depression and fractured families, and writes with such emotional rawness, such descriptive beauty, that the reader cannot help but be drawn in. I finished this book with tears running freely and a goofy smile on my face. But don't be thinking that this is a 'happily-ever-after' book. It's not. This is not a romance. This is a story of a deep and lifelong love, of an abiding loyalty, of grief, of desperation and determination.

Cate lost her husband to suicide. Now she has lost her job and her home. Out of options, she turns to her dead husband's family estate, using the clause in the Trust documents that allows tenure to the direct descendants of Hugo, founder of the museum and Richard's grandfather, to give her son and great-grandson to Hugo, a home. Richard always refused to take her to his childhood home, so she has no idea what to expect.

Cate is a Londoner, as is son Leo, used to places filled with chattering people, a cacophony of smells, sounds and taste, with friends who are able to step in to care for Leo if necessary. And Leo had everything he needed in London: sports teams and music lessons, art groups, dancing and, most importantly, his friends. How are they going to survive living in a outdated 'apartment' where the kitchen is three floors below their rooms, in a rambling and remote country mansion (Hatters) seriously in need of maintenance, their only company a strange and resentful old woman and a pot smoking gardener with a criminal conviction?

The only thing that makes it bearable for Cate is the thought that it's not permanent, it's only until she gets another job...

The Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris is an intricate and beautiful story of three generations of a family dogged by the black dog of depression. It is sad, tragically so, but it is also one of the most beautiful pieces of writing that I have ever read.

❤❤❤❤❤

#TheMuseumofForgottenMemories #NetGalley

In some parts of the world, this book is published under the title 'Where We Belong'

'The most bitter thing about love; you can't understand it, measure it - not all its edges and intricacies - until it's gone and the clear print of its negative self is left behind.'

'We none of us get out alive and none of us get out without some pain.'

'The sun is thinking about setting, lowering itself into a comfortable position on the horizon, letting go of the heat of the day.'

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Anstey Harris is based by the seaside in south-east England where she lives with her violinmaker husband and two dogs. She teaches creative writing in the community, local schools, and as an associate lecturer for Christchurch University in Canterbury.

Anstey writes about the things that make people tick, the things that bind us and the things that can rip us apart. In 2015, she won the H G Wells Short Story Prize for her story, Ruby. In novels, Anstey tries to celebrate uplifting ideas and prove that life is good and that happiness is available to everyone once we work out where to look (usually inside ourselves). Her short stories tend not to end quite so well...

Things that interest Anstey include her children and granddaughter, green issues and conservation, adoption and adoption reunion (she is an adopted child, born in an unmarried mothers' home in Liverpool in 1965), stepfamilies, dogs, and food. Always food. She would love to be on Masterchef but would never recover from the humiliation if she got sent home in the first round.

DISCLOSURE: Thank you to Simon & Schuster Australia via NetGalley for providing a digital ARC of The Museum of Forgotten Memories by Anstey Harris for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own personal opinions.

For an explanation of my rating system please refer to my Goodreads.com profile page or the about page on sandysbookaday.wordpress.com

This review and others are also published on Twitter, Amazon, Instagram and my webpage

The Museum of Forgotten Memories is a story that slowly unravels its secrets. I wasn't immediately sucked into the book but as the story went on and we understood what really was going on with these characters I was more invested in the story.
It's a story about Cate whos husband committed suicide 4 years ago. She has a son, Leo who she loves dearly and she has her husband and her best friend, Simon who loved her husband as much as she does. After losing her job and being kicked out of their London flat she has no place to live other than her late husbands family mansion which is also home to an amazing museum. Unfortunately the museum isn't attracting visitors so Cate and the museums care taker Araminta have to work out ways to save the museum.
The book is filled with secrets and a lot of crazy things happen to them over and over again as the book goes on. In the end I really enjoyed it and wanted to see where it would end.
Thanks to Netgalley.com and Simon and Schuster Australia for my ARC copy of this book.

Hatters Museum of the Wide Wide World, a dilapidated, once-whimsical museum, offers unexpected solace to a grieving widow, and exposes secrets that will alter the course of her life.

When Cate and Richard met at university they felt an immediate spark, but as the couple matured Richard’s inner demons threatened their happiness. With time, he receded further and further into darkness until he disappeared altogether.

Now, four years after Richard’s passing, Cate is let go from her teaching job and can’t pay the rent on the London flat she shares with her and Richard’s son, Leo. She packs the two of them up and ventures to Richard’s grandfather’s old Victorian museum in the small town of Crouch-on-Sea, where the dusty staff quarters await her. Despite growing pains and a grouchy caretaker, Cate falls in love with the quirky taxidermy exhibits and sprawling grounds and makes it her mission to revive them. But as Cate becomes more invested in Hatters, she must finally confront the reality of Richard’s death – and the role she played in it – in order to reimagine her future.

I wanted to love this book, the description held so much promise, unfortunately it just did not work for me.
It took me a while to warm up to the characters and then I was only slightly interested in how there story progressed. I was so disappointed with the museum, I wanted it to be full of odd curiosities and treasures not just stuffed animals.
This book just wasn’t for me.

“I cannot count the people outside. They look for all the world like an angry mob, come from the village to storm our castle. Except that they’re all smiling: they’re chattering and laughing. And they are all carrying buckets and mops and ladders and cloths in place of swords and maces and clubs.”

The Museum of Forgotten Memories (also published as Where We Belong) is the second novel by British author, Anstey Harris. They hadn’t been made particularly welcome, nor was the accommodation quite what they expected. But the museum at Crouch-on-Sea, Hatters Museum of the Wide Wide World: that was fantastic. Mounted animals from everywhere in breath-taking displays, extensive and beautiful gardens, and a stunning glass-domed library.

Not that Cate Morris and her son, Leo had had any choice in the matter: they’d hung on in London after Richard died but, with Cate made redundant from her teaching job, and nowhere else to live, they had to insist on Leo’s right, as a descendant of Colonel Hugo Lyons-Morris, to reside at the museum his parents had founded. Richard always refused to discuss the place, let alone go there, so Cate didn’t know what to expect.

“It was lonely, watching the man I loved fade and grow hazy, muted inside a facsimile of his physical self – a self that grew ever thinner and more angular.” Even four years after losing him, Cate is still often beset by anger and guilt. Leo may be a blessing, but he is often a challenge to raise; moreso, alone. She still misses Richard so much: “I live with a Richard-sized hole in my life: almost a physical thing in the room we slept in; in the places we took Leo to; in the kitchen every day when I finish work.” Emails to the only person who truly understands, their mutual best friend Simon Henderson, offer some respite.

Hatters caretaker Araminta Buchan is stiff and formal with Cate, but softer towards Leo. She’s explained the museum is under threat of closure, and it isn’t until Cate offers to help with a tour group that she unbends a little. Could they, together, actually save the place? And might Cate learn more of the family about which Richard was so unwaveringly reticent?

With a setting that sets the imagination soaring, Harris gives the reader a story populated by characters with depth and appeal; some are quirky while many are typical inhabitants of the English village. Leo is most certainly a star and Cate learns that age and experience don’t necessarily guarantee better judgement of character.

If some aspects of the plot can be predicted, there are also quite a few surprises and secrets: “Family secrets can be huge, Cate… They destroy those who know them and they torture those who are outside them.” The story is set in 2020, but it’s not the written-by-Stephen-King 2020 we currently inhabit, it’s the 2020 we might have had if COVID-19 had not reared its ugly head. Funny, moving and utterly enchanting, Harris’s second novel is even better than her first.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Australia.