The Memory Keeper
2014: Stupefaction supersedes triumph for archaeologist Jennifer Dawson as her team recovers a submerged WWII Spitfire from Romney Marsh: her trowel drags, ominously, on a rigidly sealed cockpit hood. A behemoth awaits, for like Orpheus caught in the underworld, the hapless pilot is encased therein. Jennifer fervently hopes for closure for the family, still snatching at wholeness herself following a catastrophe that has torn her own world asunder. As she seeks permission to unearth the staggering find, synchronicities gather to dissolve neat official records like mist clearing over the boggy wetlands…
1940: Siblings Aidan and Bella Gardner, matured through a gruelling upbringing on Bindalong cattle station, are already competent young pilots as they relocate to Scotland; action-ready as war begins. Freshly licensed, Bella becomes a model Air Transport Auxiliary delivery pilot, ferrying Tiger Moths and suchlike with ease. Victor of countless dogfights, manoeuvring a Spitfire with signature aplomb, the young airman dubbed “Digger” for his Antipodean twang quickly outshines even the best as his squadron’s natural alpha leader…
Corin Burnside adroitly whisks her reader through a tantalising whirlpool of time travel, her prose effortlessly pouring two chronologies over a crisply mapped plot to converge into an all-encompassing river of wholeness. Truth marks the spot like votive flowers as a confidence releases decades-old emotions: love, promise, loss, adjustment, acceptance, ripple freely across the dimensions. Deep respect for the lifechanging sacrifices of military personnel, and for those navigating the soul-scouring pilgrimage from grieving to new beginnings, gently underpins the writing; the heartening theme that healing may come, gradually, from even the most incontrovertible wreckage.
Jennifer peers determinedly: the dog tags are scuffed, illegible… no matter. Routine tests will soon identify the mysterious recipient of honours rightfully due. Surely smiling to have placed their secret into safe hands, the ancient marshland spirits watch on.
