Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #136523 in Books
• Published on: 2005-02-18
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Synopsis
Winnie would say she's no trouble. She's content to let the days go by, minding her own business, bothering no-one. She'd rather not recall the past and, at 72, doesn't see much point in thinking about the future. But when her closed existence is shattered by a random act of violence, Winnie is catapulted out of her exile. Robbed of everything she owns, she embarks on a journey to track down the thief - but she soon finds that what began as a search for stolen belongings has become the rediscovery of a stolen life.

Customer Reviews

didn't enjoy it
took this one for my holiday read, didn't enjoy it - it's quite depressing really. Although well written, the story meandered aimlessly and just took too long to get to the end and wasn't really worth it when you did.

Breathtaking
I am so impressed with this book that I hardly know where to begin. During page-turning and pin-drop quiet reading I have startled myself by gasping aloud, so touched am I by the skill of this writer, the beauty in her craft.
What more can I say? I simply love this book and will be giving it as a present to anyone I know with a vibrant heart.

"Truth is, as you get older, things get further away"
Memory, suffering and loss are the themes of this rather abstract and densely imagined book by Trezza Azzopardi. I can't say this is one of my favourite books of the year – the story takes a little too long to develop and Azzopardi's method of switching backwards and forwards in time becomes, at times, a little blurred. But the story is still a quite elegant and engaging study of one woman's anguish and torment and of the puzzle of a life at last reclaimed. Narrated in the first person by the seventy-two-year old Winifred – homeless and abused time after time by those she's trusted – she is content to sit on park benches watching the world go by, or read the "free sheets" for furniture she can't afford to buy. She would rather not recall the past, but after a young girl robs her of her suitcase and wig - her only material possessions – she is propelled out of her exile, and forced on a journey to find the thief.The Remember Me is a cerebral venture, a journey of the mind and memory. Winifred must confront her stolen life and her time living as a young girl against the backdrop of the Second World War. In fragments and illusions, she is gradually forced to take stock of how abuse, long obscured have bought her to a dilapidated house on the edge of nowhere. She recalls the upheaval caused by her mentally ill Mother, and her disaffected father; and the betrayal by her strict and domineering grandfather, her embittered, sallow Aunt Ena and the kindness offered by the lodger, Mr. Stadnik. She also recalls Joseph Dodd, her lost and only love, a young man who she meets in the country. As Winifred pieces together her life, she realizes that she is not only searching for a thief, but she is searching for a life that was lived, and at once, irretrievably lost. Remember Me requires a close reading as Azzopardi peppers the narrative with many subtle and understated clues to Winifred's life. The story unfolds slowly and mellifluously as Winifred's identity and her "mistakes" are gradually revealed. Like her Mother, Winifred feels an affinity with the spirit world and is trained to see ghosts –she sees herself in reflection, "the girl looking back at me from underneath, like a premonition of what was to come" Winifred sees "future ghosts", memories stored on top of one another; she's building a "tower without bells" and later, she will bring them down in an earthquake of her own making. Full of poetic imagery, Remember Me draws a sharp contrast with the dreamlike quality of Winifred's youth and her ambling, wondering and solitary present life. Azzopardi uses short, sharp, yet incredibly descriptive sentences to create a world of reverie and emotion. This is a complex and opaque novel, full of feeling and passion.