The Gingerbread House

This was an interesting book about the ravages of dementia along with something I never saw coming. After losing her job, and with money getting tight, Tess moves into her mother-in-law’s home the “gingerbread house” to be a carer for Eleanor, who is being ravaged by dementia. Tess does her best to cope with Eleanor, who is at times hostile and angry, afraid and childlike or, even worse, normal. Watching the whole thing but unable to intervene is Tess’s daughter, Katia, who will reveal her real reason for being at the gingerbread house at the end of the story. The ending blew me out of the water, totally did not see it coming

Nestled among cherry trees in a picturesque country garden, the Gingerbread House resembles and illustration from an old-world storybook. But beware! For in the fairytale, that's where the witch lives ...

Not really. The Gingerbread House is nothing like the one in the fairytale and the witch is a grandmother suffering from dementia.

When Tess is made redundant from her job as an advertising copywriter, she goes to the Gingerbread House as it seems like the perfect place to work on a novel. But caring for her mother-in-law Eleanor is harder than she imagined.

The story is narrated by Eleanor's granddaughter, fourteen year old Katia. Katia doesn't talk but she's an excellent listener and observer. She loves books and stories and it is she who named the house. As Tess starts to struggle with the isolation and the harsh reality of being a full-time carer, Katia is forced to watch helplessly.

This really hit a nerve with me. My grandmother suffers from dementia too. While it hurts that she doesn't always remember me, the most emotional moment for me was when I realised that she knew fully well what was happening. "There's something wrong in my head", she told me. Like Eleanor, she has good moments and bad moments and it's the bad ones that are positively draining.

There's no sugarcoating, it's highly realistic and believable and you will come away with nothing but the utmost admiration for those that are full-time carers.

The Gingerbread House is a deeply moving story. Heartbreaking and occasionally also quite funny. Katia is a fabulous narrator and her father often relies on dark humour to lift his wife's spirits. There's also a twist I didn't see coming it all. At the end of the book, I was left with a massive lump in my throat.

OMG!!! What a good book. This book deals with a woman suffering from dementia and her daughter-in-law that is providing care to her. We also meet Katia who is the daughter of the son and his wife of the older woman. Katia does not speak, but this is explained toward the end. And what a ending it is. This is an extremely good book, well written with an ending you will not see coming. I encourage everyone to read this book. It will stay with you for a very long time. Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

5 stars

Tess and her daughter who is fourteen named Katia go to take care of Granny while the woman named Lotus who normally cares for her is on vacation at a wedding for three weeks. With much trepidation, they listen to the woman’s instructions. And then they are alone in the house with Granny – who has holes in her brain. She has dementia.

Katia has named the house “The Gingerbread House.” It is mostly pink and has some rather hideous and some charming parts about it. She also narrates our story, but she does not speak.

This is a thoughtful, poignant, sad and occasionally funny novel about living with someone who has dementia. It is extremely well written and sensitive.

This book is extremely well written. The transitions are seamless and the language is beautiful. This is my first Kate Beaufoy novel, but it certainly won’t be my last. I absolutely loved it!

I want to thank Netgalley and Black & White Publishing for forwarding to me a copy of this most wonderful book to read.

When I saw Kate Beaufoy had a new book being published I was thrilled as I have been a long term fan of her work and especially have loved the different direction that her last two books have taken her in. The cover for this new book The Gingerbread House was simply stunning. It packs a punch in it's simplicity yet I could tell there was a powerful story waiting to be read. I didn't even read the blurb before beginning because I knew anything Kate publishes I want to read it no questions asked.

What surprised me initially was the length of the book at just about 200 pages I wondered was this more of a novella? Admittedly I was slightly disappointed because I was expecting a big chunky read that I really could sink my teeth in to. I really should not have had any hesitations at all because this book caught my attention right from the very first line and the more I read the more I found myself being drawn deeper into the story and the characters situation and feelings. So yes it was short and I read it in one sitting but this is the kind of book that there is so much to take from it that as soon as you are finished you feel the need to go back and reread it again. In fact this book more than deserves several re-reads to fully absorb the beauty of the writing, the message conveyed within and just to pick up on the little bits you will have missed the first or even the second time round. In two hundred pages of its length not one word, phrase, scene or sentence was not utilised to utter perfection. Everything was carefully placed and the reader can sense the time and effort that went into writing this gem of a book which although proved a hard read for the majority in the end it turned out to be faultless and is already a major highlight of my 2017 reading.

The Gingerbread House is a deeply moving novel which affected me in ways I never thought possible and I shed more than a few tears whilst reading it. It really struck a chord with me given its subject matter and I believe anyone who reads it will find something they can identify with. It is a deeply compassionate novel that follows one family's struggle to cope with an older relatives demise into dementia. This topic is not featured in books all that often and deserves to have more attention. Maybe authors are afraid they will not do the topic justice but here Kate Beaufoy has gotten to the heart of the matter with stunning affect. The harsh realities of the situation and the physical and mental toll on both the carer and the patient are written in all their glory for the reader to comprehend. I found myself having to stop everyone so often just to ponder what I had read and to take everything in. For those who may not have had someone in their family suffering from dementia they need not worry as they would also find similarities with having to cope with someone suffering a serious illness of which there is no coming back.

Tess the daughter in law of Eleanor, the person suffering through this relentless illness, is a woman doing her bit because she loves Eleanor's son Donn and she would do anything he asked of her. Being sent to the Gingerbread House of the title for three weeks whilst Eleanor's carer is away is not the ideal situation she would wish to find herself in. But when someone is in need we unquestionably drop everything and are there for that person through thick and thin. You don't stop and think I can't do this, you just get on with with it and although you find yourself doing things you never would want to do you just battle through. It's only when the situation may resolve itself in some form or other, be it happy or sad, you actually sit down and process what you have been through and begin to realise just how difficult things were, but that you did it because love and strength saw you through and you know said person would be forever grateful you did it for them and you can live comfortably with the thoughts of everything you did for them.

The Gingerbread House of the title is a house seemingly more or less isolated deep in the countryside and from the beginning there is a heavy, dark feeling almost like an oppressive weight bearing down. The atmosphere is tense and stifling and Tess finds herself dreading the daily routine of caring for Granny. The story is told from the perspective of Tess's teenage daughter Katia and I thought this was a brilliant way of telling the story as she built up a picture of Granny who is no longer the woman she once was. Routine is now everything to Granny as the moments of lucidity and sense are few and far between. It is just heartbreaking and devastating to see someone decline so much. It makes you think if you knew what was in store for you down the line would you be able to keep going or would you strive to live life to the fullest and grab every given opportunity? Katia was very very observant. She was like a shadow to her mother there for her when Tess had to do the most unpleasant of things in the care for Granny but I could identify with it all I have been through it myself although not in the form of dementia but still I found myself nodding along to everything attempting to read through the tears in my eyes.

Katia was the perfect person to tell this story and the use of the fairytale interspersed with the present day was something really different but brought an added dimension to the overall tone and feel of the story. The use of Charlotte's Web and The Little Mermaid was deftly slipped in at just the most appropriate of moments and normally I would dislike this in a story but here it worked beautifully. So much so that I found myself taking to both Tess and Katia. This book may sound like it is all doom and gloom and yes it could some readers may take that from this story but there was humour and a light touch when needed which provided a nice balance between the rigidity of Granny's routine and Eleanor and Katia's attempts at keeping everything going when they just want to give up. It's not often these days that I rave about a book and just want everyone to drop everything and read it now so I can discuss it with them but in this case The Gingerbread House is that book.

I find myself getting more and more pickier as to what makes a good book that keeps me reading and that makes me want to share that book love with others but Kate Beaufoy has written a brilliant book that has such a huge twist that was satisfyingly and successfully kept under wraps when it could have been given away all too easily. Suffice to say it tore me apart even further than I already had been and confirmed this is a sublime piece of work. I relished every bit of this incredible story and urge you to buy this book as soon as possible and treasure it for many years to come as you will come back to it more than once.

This book was what I expected but also not what I expected. I thought it would be something like "Still Alice" but it wasn't. It felt as if the story was told from the perspective of a much younger girl than Katia (whilst reading I was trying to figure out Katia's age). My heart went out to Tess as it is not easy to care for someone that is not really related to you, especially if it is your mother-in-law. Dementia is a horrible disease that everyone of us hope not to get one day. There is a twist in this story and it was only at about tree quarters in that it clicked for me. I enjoyed reading this book.
This was my first Kate Beaufoy novel and I want to thank Netgalley and Black and White publishing for the copy.

Thanks Netgalley. The title of the book does not do justice to the book (in a nice way), I thought it would be all sweet and light, how wrong was I. Great book

Sad book about dementia, loss, growing old , losing your job because of redundancy, grief and love . There is not anything nice about dementia , for the person, family , friends and caregivers. This book clearly shows the struggles of growing old and how our society now is experiencing this. There is a lot more going on in this book however . Although the ending is surprising there were hints throughout the book. A worthwhile read that is heart breaking but hopeful.

This is a very thought provoking book it sounds all sweet but the subject matter does make you think. Tess moves in to take care of her mother-in-law for three weeks in an isolated old house. Eleanor is suffering from dementia. This book looks at the issues for both Tess and Eleanor. As a society we are living longer but is that a good thing ?

A wonderful, but all too true story about caring for a loved one with end stage dementia from a young granddaughter 's view. It was spot on and the heartache and heaviness it often carries in all family members.
I will add; that the ending surprised me.

Fourteen year old Katia is the only child of Donn and Tess. For three weeks her mother and she will be living with ‘the witch’; otherwise known as Eleanor, Katia’s 90 year old grandmother who is suffering from vascular dementia who requires around the clock care. This is normally taken care of by Lotus, the home help, but she is going to Malaysia because her daughter is getting married. Eleanor lives in a beautiful, slightly run down home that Katia refers to as The Gingerbread House, because it reminds her of the witches house in Hansel and Gretel.

Tess has just been made redundant from her work in the advertising industry and is going to replace Lotus in an attempt to earn some money and see if she could become Eleanor’s help full time, something she is resistant to, as being her mother-in-law’s physical carer is not what she wanted to do with her life. But the family can’t survive on what Donn brings in as a freelance journalist, so Tess’s hands are tied.

Katia is very observant for a fourteen year old girl. There isn’t much that escapes her attention.

Do you know something? I sometimes think that my parents imagine that just because I cannot talk doesn’t mean I cannot hear. I hear everything. Katia is all ears.

She shares a very intense visual of what her grandmothers body looks like, in great detail, which is none too flattering. She is aware of her mother’s drinking getting heavier and heavier as the weeks go on. She sees how her mother is quaking under the responsibility of taking care of Eleanor, but seems helpless to offer her mother anything but emotional support. But she does share her thoughts of the situation with Charlotte, the spider living in the tree house, named after one of her favourite literary characters from Charlotte’s Web. Literature is a very important part of Katia’s life. Something she shared with her parents, whom are artsy kinds of people.

Beaufoy isn’t afraid to take the reader down the very real pathway of life caring for an older person, exploring all the aspects that make it such a difficult, often thankless job. But the writing is so beautiful that one often forgets to be revolted or horrified and instead is entranced with problems such as the finer points of giving an elderly person a bath for example. Katia shares her conversations that often follow no discernible thread with her grandmother. She also shares that she wants to have conversations with her mother in her dreams. Little hints are scattered through the prose that one so often skips over, but there is a mystery involved within this novel, but its revelation leaves the reader feeling like they have had a blow to the belly.

There is a certain sadness and yet an undeniable relief at the closing of the story. It’s not a very long novel, but it is filled with beautiful turns of phrase. It unravels and slowly reveals the truth and the horror of life gone wrong. This piece is glorious and gentle, brutal and direct. It is well worth the time to read.