To the Lighthouse

When Nerea's mother Luisa is suddenly struck by amnesia, the graveness of the situation puts Nerea in stress, burdened with guilt and fear of losing her mother's memory forever. The photographs from Nerea's childhood bring back memories of the lives they shared, but now she feels it is parting away. Luisa is in hospital bed, and she doesn't recognize her daughter or son, and of little she speaks Nerea has no way to connect what she means. Nerea belatedly calls her aunt Dolores in Germany to let her know about her sister, feeling helpless. After all, she was the one who has known Luisa in the best way. Aunt's visit and Luisa's reaction thereafter hints a long forgotten episode of their lives which Luisa never shared with her children. 

Nerea is torn between her job as a journalist, the guilt of not taking seriously her mother's early symptoms, her role as a wife and mother which has now seemed to her out of balance and her mother's condition. It is hard for her to cope with this status, and she sees no way out, until her reluctant aunt shares the story of Luisa's past. In the meantime, Nerea has her own trouble dealing with a faded memory¹ and now sudden appearance of an individual from the past has made her further restless. We see, Nerea and Luisa bearing almost the same fate of being haunted by lost love and longing. The culmination of the novel is Nerea and Luisa trying a way out, to help her mother recover her memory or at least her deeply buried wish be fulfilled. Within this escape, Nerea too finds her way back into the life, refilled with courage.

1.       "We repaint ourselves endlessly, putting one event on top of another, forgetting the one underneath or thinking we've forgotten. But one day we take a hit,"

There are so many stories that are unspoken of², and the motherhood bears it all, embraces the new way to find and furnish happiness in many lives. But something stays, as a part of our identity, only to be realized by few who experience the same or have the need to know. The dramatic appeal of the conversations or images/photographs in the novel captures the tense ambience where memory and love dominates all in existence.

2.       The things that are not said earlier cannot always be said later, and one cannot give after death hugs that were left ungiven in life.

Senses and dreams revolve around questions people try to solve in their lives. The liveliness can suddenly be turned into an unexpected loss, and in this horror of being forgotten Nerea struggles to help her mother, and tries to relive the life her mother and aunt lived. The story suggests, we try to keep the tragedies to ourselves, as if they are our personality, but the fear of being left alone also torments us. The fate and the choices — Nerea tries to clear this fog, and attempts to make the best of what's left to her. The references in the Her Mother's Hands also point to the need to be daring, to seek for the second chance. The novel's subtlety is in its meaning that life is divided into precious moments and we have little time to appreciate or be nostalgic except for to live it with courage.

Author: Karmele Jaio

Translator: Kristin Addis

Publisher: Parthian Books

Page Count: 122

Price: $ 11.99

Photo Credit: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karmele_Jaio

Review Copy Courtesy: Parthian Books