Book Review: The Memory Box by Kathryn Hughes

The Memory Box is a novel by bestselling author Kathryn Hughes, published in 2021.

I’ve read a couple of Kathryn Hughes’ novels before and I’ve always enjoyed them. The Letter was a particular favourite. I therefore jumped at the chance of receiving an advanced copy of her latest novel The Memory Box.

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Genre: Historical Fiction

Author: Kathryn Hughes

Buy: Amazon | Waterstones

Published: 2021

Plot

The book starts in an upmarket care home where Jenny is celebrating her 100th birthday. As she looks back on the years gone by, she opens her memory box – a cherished keepsake full of mementoes including a pebble, a carving and a newspaper cutting she can hardly bear to read.

Candice, meanwhile, is young and full of ambition. She wants to eventually run her own salon and be content with the man she loves. Jenny and Candice form an unlikely bond and begin to confide in each other. Jenny starts to tell Candice the story of her life, and the meaning behind her memory box. She persuades Candice to accompany her on a return trip to Cinque Alberi, a place that holds so many memories from the 1940s. She hopes the trip to the small Italian village will finally allow her to lay the past to rest.

The Memory Box Book Review

I love an unlikely friendship. The bond between Jenny and Candice reminded me of the title characters in The One Hundred Years Of Lenni and Margot as well as the friendship between Albert and Nicole in The Secret Life Of Albert Entwistle. I enjoyed the similarities in their personalities, as well as certain decisions they made.

I really liked the character development and how Kathryn Hughes created characters that are nuanced – even our protagonists have flaws. The questionable decision-making and naivety shown at times made the characters all the more relatable. I found myself rooting for a happy ending for them both.

I felt the dual timelines ran seamlessly alongside each other without creating any confusion. I loved how the fictional village of Cinque Alberi was described so beautifully that I could vividly imagine the location both in the 1940s and the present day.

I felt gripped by both Candice and Jenny’s stories and I felt the ending wrapped everything up nicely.

I love WW2 fiction and The Memory Box didn’t disappoint. It’s the first book I’ve read from the point of view of the evacuees and so it had a completely different tone to books such as Book of Lost Names or Daughters Of The Resistance.

I really enjoyed The Memory Box by Kathryn Hughes. It’s an emotive, thought-provoking read about love, loss and forgiveness.