→ Kindle Nation Daily eBook of The Day ←
The Memory of Us: A Novel
– Learn MoreJulianne Westcott was living the kind of life that other Protestant girls in prewar Liverpool could only dream about: old money, silk ball gowns, and prominent young men lining up to escort her. But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.
While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family’s expectations, Kyle’s devotion to the Church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she’s always known or follow the difficult path toward love.
But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she’s told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her—will she be brave enough to face it?
“This lovely story, with its aura of sadness, may remind some readers of Colleen McCullough’s The Thorn Birds. Di Maio plays on readers’ heartstrings like a virtuoso, drawing many tears and deep sighs as her story moves from happiness to tragedy and back again. Not only can Di Maio pull readers into the story with her straightforward prose and time-hopping narrative, but she keeps them turning the pages to watch her appealing characters find their true paths. This is a story that lingers long after the satisfying end.” —RT Book Reviews