An audio book.
In 2008, after a bang on the head at the gym, Alice, 39, is taken to hospital. She thinks she's pregnant with her first child. The doctor points out her Caesarian scar. Her last 10 years have disappeared.
Some chapters are Alice's. Some chapters are her older sister Elizabeth's homework for Dr Hodges (her therapist). Some chapters are old friend Franny's blog posts and the resulting comments (Franny, 75, lived next door to Alice's mother until her mother moved away).
From Elizabeth, married to Ben, we learn that Alice has 3 children and that her husband Nick Love walked out 6 months before. There's a custody battle. Alice recalls many moments from 10 or so years ago as she tries to make sense of who she's become. She learns how she reacted the first time to what she's re-learning now. She feels like an imposter in her own life. Alice is shocked to find out that her mother Barbara has married Roger, Nick's father. Elizabeth has tried expensively to have children. She and Ben disagree about adoption.
Alice returns home. It's the sort of house she's always wanted. She looks around for clues about herself and her children (who are with Nick's parents). Franny visits. Even she doesn't know why the divorce is happening. Alice suspects that it might be something to do with "Gina". Alice is hosting a party for kindergarten parents that night. The head is who she's been dating for a month, apparently. Have they had sex?
Gina was Alice's best friend, making Elizabeth and Nick envious. Gina also had IVF children. She didn't have an affair with Nick. She died in a car accident that Alice and Madison (a daughter) witnessed.
When Nick returns the kids he seems to be expecting hostility but Alice is kind. She finds the new Nick irritating at times. Had she been right to separate? Had they married when they were too young? She's organised a world record attempt to bake the world's biggest Meringue pie using Gina's recipe.
Madison is suspended for bullying. Before, Nick had left Alice to deal with such issues. Now she insists that Nick is involved.
Her memories return. We're rushed through them. Things make sense. Elizabeth is tense about being pregnant - months of anxiety ahead. Franny meets a man.
In the epilogue 10 years later we find out how the kids turned out. Nick and Alice are together.
I like the idea of how Alice needs to recalculate her decisions, how she had to work out how she'd changed from who she was to who she is, how she makes use of having another chance
Other reviews
- thebookbag (Alice soon learns that who she thinks she is, is at odds with the woman she appears to have evolved into, someone she has little in common with and for that matter doesn't even like very much. ... I'll admit at times I was a bit too eager to second guess where the story was going as I figured this type of novel would be fairly predictable, so extra points go to Liane Moriarty for genuinely surprising me)
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