I Remember Everything (Fiona Wilkes, Fremantle)

Fiona Wilkes’s debut novel, I Remember Everything, memorialises the LGBTQIA+ communities lost to the AIDS crisis. In this fictionalised memoir, Billie recounts her formative years from 1979 to 1990, moving from the dorms and clubs of university life in Bristol to dingy, overcrowded share houses in London. Over time, she forms an intimate and fluid friendship group that becomes a chosen family, making the losses all the more painful as, one by one, her friends are diagnosed with – and die from – AIDS and related illnesses. This is exceptionally difficult in the case of Billie’s closest childhood friend and long-term love, Laura, whom she cares for singlehandedly through her illness. The story is interspersed with scenes set during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as Billie writes her memoir and struggles to explain to her wife and child the importance of remembering this painful period. The novel engages with confronting themes – including homophobia and transphobia, violence, graphic descriptions of sickness and gore, drug use, sex and suicide – but handles them with care, making the story affecting rather than overwhelming. Wilkes’s lived experience as a queer woman, alongside her research, is evident in her portrayal of both the medical crisis and its gutting impact on queer communities. While the ending holds little surprise, this does not diminish its emotional weight, and the novel’s latter half proves deeply moving. For readers interested in LGBTQIA+ history and communities.

If you or someone you know needs support, Lifeline provides 24-hour crisis counselling and suicide prevention services on 13 11 14, via text on 0477 13 11 14 or through online chat. Suicide Call Back Service provides 24-hour support if you or someone you know is feeling suicidal on 1300 659 467.

Books+Publishing reviewer: Eleanor Jackson is a reader with years of experience in children's bookselling. She is passionate about books with a strong, important message and excellent writing. Books+Publishing is Australia’s number-one source of pre-publication book reviews.

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