Published in May this year by Jonathan Ball Publishers, Think of Me is another sweeping historical novel by Frances Liardet, the New York Times bestselling author of We Must Be Brave. It is clear from the outset that research is Liardet’s strong suit, and this forms the bedrock of what is a beautifully crafted story starting in Alexandria, Eqypt in 1942.
This is the story of Yvette and James, who meet during World War II where they fall in love while holed up in a bomb shelter, explosions erupting above their heads. Liardet paints a vivid backdrop to the love story, describing life in Alexandria before and during the war, chronicling the various battles in horrific detail, and illustrating the unimaginable human suffering of losing loved ones and friends during wartime.
It is an epic tale that takes the reader on an odyssey between continents, through times of war and peace, and into the workings of a relationship between two people who love each other terribly but have very different perspectives and ways of dealing with life, loss and heartache.
Yvette, who captures her life story in several notebooks when she falls ill, is the narrator of the couple’s wartime experiences during the early 1940s, and she starts the tale when James is recruited as a pilot and she a driver. Despite the war’s impact on each of their lives, they find their way back to each other and, as was the case for many others in Alexandria at the time, decide to leave war-torn Egypt to make a life together in England. It is through Yvette’s narrative that the reader learns about her lonely journey after a loss despite being in a relationship with a man she loves.
We get to know James more intimately when, 10 years after his wife’s death, he moves to a little English village to become its new vicar in 1974. When he discovers a lost scarf in the church, his memory is triggered and he finds himself reviewing his role as a lover, husband and father, and is forced to confront his disillusionment with life, humanity, love and God.
I’ll admit I found the pace somewhat slow at times, but once I settled into the slow-burn rhythm of Think of Me, I appreciated the way in which Liardet packaged the novel. It is brimming with fascinating historical detail, but also offers a compassionate examination of the generation that survived the war and how they dealt with grief, loss and new beginnings.
Ultimately? An intriguing and rewarding journey.
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