The Memory Trap (Andrea Goldsmith, Fourth Estate)

What a mess people can make of their lives. In this remarkable novel we meet Nina, a consultant on memorial projects, and her apparently perfect husband Daniel, who suddenly dumps her; Ramsay, a self-focussed piano virtuoso, his doting step-father George, besotted friend Zoe and her bitter husband Elliot; Daniel’s slighted brother Sean and his (mercifully) supportive partner Tom, to mention only some of the characters. The story spans a number of years and several continents as Nina carries out her international commissions, Zoe follows Ramsay to New York, Sean travels from place to place, starting but never finishing his books, and the estranged Daniel dashes to Melbourne to try to re-connect with his wife. Andrea Goldsmith’s characters are complex, infuriating but believable people, their behaviours often rooted in past memories but their slow progress towards self-realisation always plausible and sometimes very moving. I occasionally wearied of Nina’s descriptions of memorials around the world, evocative though they are, yet other readers may well be stimulated to seek them out. ‘It’s easier to cling to a lost past than throw yourself on the uncertain winds of the future.’ For me, this is the essence of The Memory Trap. If you have ever loved, and lost—read it.

Max Oliver is a veteran Australian bookseller

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Category: Reviews