All the Words We Know is a unique and enlightening book. This is a story narrated by Rose, an elderly woman who is in Aged Care and suffering from dementia. What is incredible is that the author writes this book - confusion and mixups inclusive - as it would be for Rose. Hidden within all this dementia prose is a mystery that is taking place with the residence.

‘It’s important to us that you understand, Rose,’ he says, as if I am a lovely, brainless old thing instead of just an impossible one.’

Undoubtedly the author demonstrates clever use of language by taking the reader into the world of Rose as she not only wanders around the Aged Care facility but attempts to solve a mystery. At one level the language is playful and filled with humour, as frustrations surface in communication and unraveling past and present events.

‘I hate it when she tells me to remember. What does she think I’m trying to do, for God’s sake? But she’s the one who gets angry.’

The reader will most likely also find it frustrating as at times it becomes repetitive and unclear but of course, that is surely the experience of dementia. Personally, it would have been a hard balance to attempt but I found it detracted from not only solving the mystery but also in reaching an understanding with her children and grandchildren.

‘There are too many names, too many words, too many passwords, too many bits of silk attached to things. Too many. You have to be . . . seductive. Selective.’

All the Words We Know is really a very clever book and many readers are sure to relate to the situation both in terms of muddled words and observations with the more serious issue of communication with loved ones. I admire Bruce’s efforts in presenting an authentic book that is not only a wonderful play on words but illustrates rather poignantly the plight of many older people.

‘What I am really afraid of is the forgetting.’




This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.

Told from the perspective of Rose, an elderly woman with dementia, All the Words We Know is an unusual literary mystery.

When Rose learns her Scrabble partner has fallen to her death, she is sure that it is no accident but can’t quite recall why. It has something to do with the golden Scare Manager and the Angry Nurse, and perhaps her son’s dirty bottom and the password he needs. To make sense of what is wrong, Rose must sort through the present and the past, the understood and the unknown, the remembered and forgotten.

With a clever use of language, Nash draws the reader into Rose’s world as she roams the halls of the aged care facility. The narrative is surprisingly playful, humour deftly tempers the sharp-edged pangs of loss and frustration. Muddled words and puns add a layer of lightness, even absurdity at times. Moments of lucidity fade into the labyrinth of forgetting, so that parts of the narrative feel circular, but Rose slowly makes progress. We get glimpses of the truth that Rose is searching for, but as an unreliable narrator, it’s often as murky for us as it is for her.

I admire what Nash has accomplished with this unique novel. All the Words We Know, is clever, poignant, and entertaining.

All The Words We Know felt like One Flew Over The Cockoo’s Nest for the residential aged care, memory support setting. It’s a bit wild, and the author has captured that sense of being trapped, restless and knowing something is off but not quite knowing what. An unsettling read, with accurate portrayal of many language errors often evident in this kind of presentation. Not an easy read, and honestly one I found hard to finish, but that could be because you really do feel like you’re in the protagonist’s head!

Everything and nothing. That is how I felt about this incredible book.

Set in an aged care facility, our narrator has dementia. Yet, she knows things aren't quite right. There is the Scared Manager and the Angry Nurse and the Boy with the Floppy Fringe. Not to mention the garden outside the window where she can escape into the beauty of love and a time when words held meaning; they were funny and delicate and descriptive.

As for now, Rose (as we come to know her) can sense that things aren't quite as they should be. There is her all-important password, her daughter's constant need to water her pot plants and the sense that the Angry Manager keeps getting more and more golden.

Nash has manipulated words in the most incredible way in this book, yet it is far more than just a clever use of language. He has managed to weave in a tale of deception, intrigue and injustice whilst never playing into a plot driven narrative. The characters are central to the tale, and the language serves to help us see deeper into the mind of Rose.

Perhaps this is the closest glimpse I've had to what it might be like to lose your words but keep your wits.

Rose is in her eighties, living in an aged care facility. One of her friends, also a resident, falls from her balcony, and Rose wants to find out why. Through her ‘investigation’ we find out less and less about the accident and the investigation, and more and more about the frailty of life and the impact of dementia on our older generations who are left to fester and wander in beige corridors in states of confusion, loneliness and bewilderment.
The use of wordplay is on point, and Bruce Nash does not spare any time from using this to his advantage, highlighting Rose’s confused state and inability to remember. The Scare Manager, the Angry Nurse, unicorns (uniforms), the revelator (elevator), No Not Obstruct. All of these add humour, sometimes at Rose’s expense but at other, at the expense of her son and daughter who seem to have so little time for Rose and the facility staff who even through Rose’s eyes, seem off kilter. The use of the word revelator is quite clever as well, as each time Rose wanders around the aged care facility, into rooms that are not hers and down corridors where she should not be, more is revealed to us about what has actually happened within those closed doors.
The way in which family and staff interacted with Rose was also a sharp reflection of those experiencing dementia and other diseases such as alzheimer’s: Rose was continually told she was wrong, or that she didn’t know important pieces of information, she was constantly probed about her memory and reminded about the loss in her life. The whole interplay about her password was very clever, and as much as it brought a smirk to my face, it also made me feel quite fearful about a future where the memories I cherish now will falter and fade away.
“We will understand each other. He has shown me many things, but it is this I must remember. He has made me understand about understanding.”

Lots of fun with words and phrases in this novel about Rose, a dementia patient in an aged care facility. She forgets a lot but she is with it enough to know there is something wrong in the place when her friend falls to her death from her bedroom window. So the book walks a fine line between the humorous wordplay and the seriousness of the subject matter; from Rose’s fraught relationship with her children, to the treatment of the elderly, to the clear crimes being committed by the ‘Scare Manager’(as Rose calls the hospital director). An entertaining and thought provoking read.

An interesting literary fiction tale, All the Words We Know (2024) by Bruce Nash is narrated by an elderly woman in her eighties, residing in a care home. The background setting is important to note as the narrative has word confusion, muddled thoughts, mistaken memories and recognition issues at its heart, making reading more difficult. It’s a heartfelt human story of Rose and her daily life with all its ups and downs. She decides to investigate the death of Rose’s friend’s from a balcony fall, which arouses her suspicions, so she decides to investigate at the risk of her own potential safety. With moments of lucidity and her advancing health issues, can Rose find out what happened? An engaging all too human frail and determined protagonist makes for an endearing four stars read rating gentle crime mystery. With thanks to Aria & Aries and the author, for an uncorrected advanced review copy for review purposes. As always, the opinions herein are totally my own, freely given and without inducement.