Hepworth, Sally. the things we keep. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2016.

A thought provoking poignant story that helps define what love can be. I read this super quickly. Hepworth does a lovely job of building her story through different points of view. At 38, Anna Forster is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. She leaves her marriage and quickly finds herself needing to be moved to a personal care home after an accident involving her young nephew. Here, she finds true love in Luke the “other young one” at the facility, though the path is not easy. Specifically, they have obvious difficulties in simply remembering each other, and their families are concerned about the ramifications of a relationship under these circumstances. Enter Eve Bennet. A trained chef, she joins the personal care home as a cook and housekeeper in the wake of her own personal tragedy. She is working to keep herself and her young daughter afloat. She is in danger of becoming bitter, but finds herself drawn to the mystery of Anna and Luke, ultimately becoming their championing while facing her own demons.

I enjoyed this novel very much. While it didn’t pack the same sort of emotional punch as Still Alice did for me, I appreciate very much the insight into the lives of the patients and their families. I appreciated, too, Hepworth’s balanced approach to the variety of perspectives she includes in the novel. The plot surrounding Eve’s life and how the plots intertwine worked well also. Hepworth does a lovely job of building suspense in the way that she reveals the details of both over the course of the work. Overall, a solid read. I did some skimming...and I found some coincidences a bit too...coincidental. I’m not likely to list it as a favorite, but still, I’d recommend the things we keep to a friend.