NEW RELEASE by CHRISTOPH FISCHER ~ TIME TO LET GO ~

 

I cannot put the book down. Click on the title below for  AMAZON. It is a substantial tale of the vulnerabilities in family dynamics, but here the blurb says it best.

 

 

 

DEEP, EMOTIONAL and magnifent writing. An absolute MUST READ !, May 15, 2014

By Maria Catalina Egan "M.C.V. Egan" (Delray Beach, Florida USA)
  

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This review is from: Time to Let Go (Kindle Edition)

This FIVE STAR READ is for everyone. I would be perfectly comfortable with my teen son reading this book. Time To Let Go is a magnificently woven yarn that shows a complete understanding of human frailty in all of its characters. The superficial close knit family ties are unraveled as the characters shortcomings come to light. At the same time the characters find strength, courage and depth. It is a timeless story that in today’s global connection could really take place anywhere, using generational differences to cleverly show how tolerance and acceptance can and does change.
The storyline tackles the frustration and suffering of illness from three very different perspectives; the wealthy man who feels he can control everything, the loving children of an ethnic family in the UK, and primarily the Korhonen family as they face the slow and painful loss of the beloved mother Biddy to Alzheimer’s.
The characters are absolutely believable and even though the author does take the fictional liberty to provide Hannah with possibilities that most of us dare only dream about, he writes it so perfectly that it all feels very believable. An absolute MUST READ !

 

Time to Let Go

 

This is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.
Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.
The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

 

 

 

 

 

 

An excerpt

SWANS

 

 

He decided not to wait for Hanna’s return. She was supposed to have been gone for only a few hours but had not showed up yet. Knowing his daughter, anything was possible. He was eager to move the day along so that he and Biddy could watch an entire film before his wife would get tired and fall asleep. He had shortlisted several films which he thought his wife might enjoy but he could not make up his mind. After the last few evenings where Hanna had entertained her mother with silly musical movies he felt inclined to make a similar choice, but was not confident that he was the right company for Biddy to watch those films with. Would another musical like ‘Chicago’ be of any use, without Hanna there to cheer Biddy on?

In the end he settled for ‘The Philadelphia Story’, a classic screw ball comedy that Biddy had always loved, not least for its leading actors. The story line might intellectually be a little too demanding for his wife but it had enough slap stick moments to promise a pleasant evening.

Unfortunately Hanna came home early, before her parents had managed to settle into the film. Instantly distracted and excited by her daughter’s arrival, Biddy got up and paid no more attention to the TV.

Walter tried to set his wife up for telling the story about the swans and the dogs, but that memory was gone.

“Swans? You are talking a lot of nonsense today,” she said to Walter. “There are no swans here.”

“Not now,” Walter tried, unwilling to give up without further efforts to regain a memory for his wife. “We just went to the lake. The same as yesterday when you went to the lake with Hanna. The dog that chased the swans? That happened only two hours ago!”

“Daddy, you are upsetting her now. Leave her be,” Hanna said,

“Pumpkin, I can’t just sit back and let the disease take everything away from our life without a fight,” Walter said forcefully. “Sometimes you need to fight back. Biddy still has moments of clarity, she needs to try and remember. We need to challenge her. That swan and dog thing happened twice, that should stick somewhere in her grey matter.”

Biddy said nothing now and just stared sheepishly at the floor.

“What did you see at the lake?” Walter probed his wife.

“A lake? Oh my. But it is dark now!” Biddy protested.

“We are not going to a lake,” Walter said impatiently. “We already went this afternoon. The swans? The dog chasing them? Remember?”

“Swans,” Biddy said, nonsensical. “Swans, ha!”

“This afternoon I took you to the lake, Biddy. There was a dog chasing the swans,” Walter repeated, a bit more patient and encouraging.

“Dog. Hmmn.”

“Yes, Biddy. A swan and a dog. By the lake.”

“No, no, no,” Biddy said confused and shook her head. Her eyes looked fearful.

Hanna was quite shocked at the extreme disorientation her mother so suddenly displayed.

“I think you need to leave her alone,” she said quietly to her father. “You are getting her all worked up.”

“Dammit!” Walter hissed. “Why can’t she simply remember?”

He slammed his fist on the table and paced around the room.

“I told you many times,” he said pointedly. “You had a run of very lucky days as far as her illness is concerned. Since you got here she has been in great shape, but there are phases where it is really bad, just like this. She makes no sense at all now, does she?”

“If you know that, why are you pushing her? You are just aggravating her instead of reassuring.”

“As I said, I am trying to get a rise out of her,” Walter explained. “Yes you are right, she has withdrawn now. But I owe it to her as her partner to try, maybe once snap her back to reality, at least give it a good shot. Look at her, she doesn’t seem there, I can’t always watch and accept it, that would be giving up.”

 

 

 

 

 

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