When I Come Home Again
Just days before the Armistice in November 1918, a soldier suffering from total amnesia is found in Durham Cathedral. Renamed Adam Galilee, he is taken to a rehabilitation home for ex-servicemen, where Dr James Haworth tries to help him recover his memory. But while Adam instinctively resists reliving past traumas, working with him stirs up memories of the war and the loss of his brother-in-law Nathaniel, for James. In turn, this puts his marriage to the talented potter Caitlin under strain. When Adam’s photograph is released to the press in an appeal to find his family, it unleashes the pent-up grief of the bereaved. Three women’s claims on Adam seem particularly convincing – but are any of them true?
This thought-provoking and evocative novel deals with the lasting legacy of war on all survivors, including non-combatants, and the fluid nature of memory that can be moulded to fit facts retrospectively. It’s one of those books that has no stereotyped “villains”, only fully-developed characters damaged by events in their past, who sometimes do the wrong thing for the right reason. The Westmoreland countryside and Fellside House with its neglected walled garden are so vividly described that they become characters in their own right too.
If I was nit-picking, I might point out that a farmer’s wife would know the difference between a sickle and a scythe and that occasionally the dialogue sounds a little modern (nobody in the 1920s would have used “gift” as a verb). Since this novel is inspired by real-life events, I would have appreciated a historical note to explain where the line between established fact and fiction lay. But otherwise I can’t recommend this novel highly enough. Scott’s acclaimed first novel The Photographer of the Lost has now been added to my (substantial) To Be Read list.
