Ooh, what to say. This book has to be in my top best loved books of 2018. I enjoyed every single page. There was never a dull moment. This is the kind of story that although entertaining and often light-hearted still carries an underlying message, in fact quite a few messages come to think of it.

At the beginning we meet Gloria, a 79 year old lady who lives alone in her own home surrounded by stuff and lots of it. Gloria is a hoarder, rarely goes out and struggles to even move around her house to cook and wash, her house is so cluttered. Her son Clegg has all but given up on her and she hasn’t seen her grandchildren for at least 10 years.

Quite soon on in the book all that is about to change when an electrical fault in her house means she’s temporarily moved into elderly residential care and it’s here that she receives help and more importantly a listening ear. She’s given counselling which helps her to understand how her hoarding habit started.

As a result Gloria reaches a turning point in her life and the rest of the book sees her trying new things, rekindling long lost friendships and making new friends. It’s a joy to read and at times melts your heart. It also makes you realise just how vulnerable the elderly can become, often unnoticed and forgotten. A very sad sign of our times.

But it’s not a depressing story by any means, there’s lots to smile at all the way through. Whilst written in the third person it is still Gloria who tells the story and Gloria who the reader is with all the way through with lots of other memorable characters thrown into the mix.

The most striking thing I noticed was that in the beginning the narrative was quite child like but as Gloria tried out more things, developing her independence, her confidence grew and along with that the story telling seemed to become so much more confident and mature.   I just loved, loved this book it was brilliant.  If you’ve read a Grand Old Time by Judy Leigh and enjoyed it, you will adore this book.

The ending made me laugh and cry at the same time, laugh because of the image it left me with and cry because, well, I grew to love those characters like they were real people and I’ll miss reading about them.

I was instantly intrigued by the title and then when I read the plot, I knew I needed to get my hands on The Woman Who Kept Everything by Jane Gilley.

I absolutely love quirky books like The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry, The Rosie Project, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye, The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper. I highly recommend all of those books!

The Woman Who Kept Everything is a heartwarming story, we really need more books like this one. Here’s what you need to know:

79-year-old Gloria Frensham is a hoarder. She lives amongst piles of magazines, squashed cardboard boxes, surplus carpet rolls, heaps of towels and knick-knacks littering the stairs. She hasn’t left her home for years, until a loud bang and a sudden smell of singeing sets in motion Gloria’s unwilling exodus from her home…

That day is the start of a journey that will never return Gloria back to her beloved, hoarded possessions, nor to her son’s house to live. For it is the start of her journey to discover life again – and she’s going to make some good friends and defiant decisions along the way, with just one very small suitcase in tow…

 

This book comes out in early December and you can pre-order now. Only $1.99 on Kindle!