Wednesday, January 8, 2014

The Memory of Lost Senses

The Memory of Lost Senses
Judith Kinghorn
New American Library
January 2014

Idgie Says:
A nicely juicy, larger sized novel that you can really enjoy for more than a long afternoon.  Secrets and intrigue abound in a time of beautifully cultured people.  This time period is hugely popular is books right now and while this one fits the mold, it's bigger and bolder than the rest.  More along the lines of Roses or The Thornbirds.  The novel pops back in forth in time, slowly telling the story of the mysteriously vibrant, yet secretive and seemingly damaged countess. A good book to lose yourself into. 

Book Description:
When a mysterious countess arrives late in life to live at a large, deserted house on the edge of a sleepy Hampshire village, the local tongues start wagging. No one is more intrigued than Cecily Chadwick, idling away the long, hot summer of 1911 with nothing much to do.

Cecily is fascinated by the exotic elderly lady and, as she gets to know her, is riveted by her tales of expatriate life on the continent, and of whom she once knew. But the countess is troubled: by her memories, her name, and by anonymous threats to reveal a ruinous secret...

It is, she has decided, up to her close friend, a successful novelist who has come to stay for the summer, to put the record straight. For aspiring writer Cecily, the novelist's presence only adds to the intrigue and pull of the house. But it is the countess's grandson, Jack, his unanswered questions about his grandmother's past and his desire to know the truth, that draw Cecily further into the tangled web of the countess's life, and the place known as Temple Hill.