A beautiful novel about gratitude, about how important it is to be able to thank those who have helped us in life.
“Today an elderly woman I loved has died. I often thought: ‘I owe her so much.’ Or: ‘Without her, I probably wouldn’t be here anymore.’ I thought: ‘She is so important to me.’ Important, owe. Is that how gratitude is measured? In reality, was I grateful enough? Did I show her my appreciation as she deserved? Was I by her side when she needed me, did I keep her company, was I constant?” reflects Marie, one of the narrators of this book. Her voice alternates with Jérôme’s, who works in a nursing home and tells us: “I am a speech therapist. I work with words and with silence. With what is left unsaid. I work with shame, with secrets, with regrets. I work with absence, with memories that are no longer there and with those that resurface after a name, an image, a scent. I work with yesterday’s pain and today’s pain. With confidences. And with the fear of dying. It is part of my job.”
Both characters – Marie and Jérôme – are connected by their relationship with Michka Seld, an elderly woman whose last months of life are told through these two intertwined voices. Marie is her neighbor: when she was a child and her mother was away, Michka took care of her. Jérôme is the speech therapist who tries to help the elderly woman, who has just been admitted to a nursing home, recover at least partially the speech she is losing due to aphasia.
And both characters will become involved in Michka’s last wish: to find the couple who, during the years of the German occupation, saved her from dying in an extermination camp by taking her in and hiding her in their home. She never thanked them and now she wants to show her gratitude...
Written in a restrained, almost austere style, this two-voice narrative speaks to us about memory, the past, aging, words, kindness, and gratitude toward those who were important in our lives. It is the respective gratitudes that unite the three unforgettable characters whose stories intertwine in this moving and dazzling novel.
