The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon is Linda MacKillop‘s debut novel. You would never know that it was her first. A 2023 Christy Award winner for First Novel, it is a look into the regrets of the past and a hope for the future. Eva Gordon, a cantankerous character if ever there was one, is suffering from dementia. She knows it and her friends and family know it. She is haunted by mistakes and some very poor choices in her past, and seeks to find a way to find redemption. While she is the main character, the supporting characters — her granddaughter and her neighbor — play large roles in Eva’s life and in the direction of the book. When you just can’t take another minute of Eva’s selfishness, secondary characters enter in and your perspective changes. There’s a good bit of humor inserted into the novel — it is much needed as Eva’s dementia worsens. And the hope for a future, however short the days may be, points to healing and redemption.
I found The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon to be an outstanding book. Well-written, with interesting and relatable characters, and a tough topic handled gracefully and with humor, this novel is a must-read. It would be an excellent choice for your book club.
Recommended.
Great for Book Clubs.
Audience: Adults
(Thanks to the publisher for a complimentary copy. All opinions expressed are mine alone.)
Eva wants to run away from her life–if only she could remember how.
Failing memory has forced Eva Gordon to move in with her granddaughter, Breezy. But Eva hates the bustle of Boston. All she wants to do is move back to her quiet, cozy Cape Cod home and be left alone.
Then Breezy announces she’s getting married, and they’ll be moving to her new husband’s rundown family farm, where he lives with an elderly uncle. They’ll be one big family–but only Breezy and Brent think it’ll be a happy one.
It’s all too much for Eva. Too much change, too much togetherness, too much of an over-crowded life she never wanted. But as her desire for privacy collides with her worsening memory, Eva may find herself in a pickle she can’t get out of. Can an unlikely cast of misfit characters step in to woo Eva from her self-imposed isolation?
Fans of A Man Called Ove will appreciate Eva’s predicament, and enjoy the poignant, hilarious, and intergenerational rescue effort to save her from herself.
Linda MacKillop writes fiction for both adults and young people, and creative nonfiction. Her articles and essays have appeared in books, magazines, and literary journals such as Under the Sun and Relief Journal. The Forgotten Life of Eva Gordon is her first novel. She earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the Rainier Writing Workshop in Tacoma, Washington. As the mother of four adult sons, she and her husband live in an emptynest outside of Chicago. Visit her website at lindamackillop.com.
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