The Impossible Truths of Love by Hannah Beckerman

From Goodreads

From bestselling author Hannah Beckerman comes a moving story about memory, secrets, and what it really means to feel that you’re one of the family.

When Nell’s father makes a deathbed declaration that hints at a long-held secret, it reignites feelings of isolation that have plagued her for years. Her suspicions about the family’s past only deepen when her mother, Annie, who is losing her memories to dementia, starts making cryptic comments of her own.

Thirty-five years earlier, Annie’s life was upended by a series of traumas—one shock after another that she buried deep in her heart. The decisions she made at the time were motivated by love, but she knew even then that nobody could ever understand—let alone forgive—what she did.

As the two women’s stories unravel, a generation apart, Nell finally discovers the devastating truth about her mother’s past, and her own.

In this beautifully observed and emotionally powerful story of identity, memory and the nature of family, Hannah Beckerman asks: To what lengths would you go to protect the ones you love?

My thoughts

My thanks to the Publishers via NetGalley for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

This is a dual time frame story that relates the story of a young woman and her parents, told in the past and the present.  Every family has secrets hidden within it's confines and as Nell's parents are aging, her father tells her something that hints at a secret that he has kept to himself, but as he is coming to the end of his days he feels that she should know.  Her mother Annie sadly, is suffering from with dementia and sadly isn't able to enlighten Nell further.

Will Nell ever find out the effect that this secret has had on her life and those within it?  We readers find out what happened to Annie in the past and what decisions she had to make to move forward with her life.  How would we cope with what she went through and what would we have done?  

Grab a copy of this emotional read, that takes you on a journey of secrets, family, relationships and love.