Matt is a photographer in Santa Fe. He lives a lonely life, with his business partner, Dave, as his only friend. But when he arrives home one night to find boxes stacked outside his garage, he is confused and figures someone else's boxes were mistakenly delivered. And then he sees that they were sent on behalf of his grandmother, who raised him for eight years, and never gave him one ounce of affection.
Julia volunteers at the nursing home where her grandmother, Ruby Rose, has been a resident since her dementia diagnosis, in order to afford her staying there. It’s becoming harder and harder to deal with the imminent loss of the woman who raised her, and handle not being recognized, even being feared at times.
Matt’s grandmother is a resident at the same facility; in fact, Julia is the one who shipped the boxes to him. When he learns his grandmother has run out of money and needs him to find a new facility for her, he reluctantly agrees to drive to California. But he’s not sure he can face the woman who made him close his heart to love.
When Julia finds her grandmother’s diary, she is shocked to find out what her life was like back in the 1970s. But more than that, she discovers that there were connections between her grandmother and Matt’s, and that Matt’s grandmother might have come to the facility because of Ruby Rose.
This is an emotional read, with a lot of loss as well as Ruby Rose’s dementia. It’s also a hopeful book, about letting yourself love and be loved, and about the secrets we hide to protect ourselves, but they may hurt others. There is also a strange thread of magical realism which I didn’t enjoy and found very unsettling (strange, since I love magical realism), so I focused on the rest of the story.
No comments:
Post a Comment