THINK OF ME

A widowed English vicar is forced to face the truth about himself, his marriage, and his faith when his home literally and figuratively falls to pieces.

James Acton might be a member of the great generation who offered themselves up to fight in the Second World War, but he would be the last to say so. Modest and decent, he’s an upright figure—a pilot in the Royal Air Force who met his future wife, Yvette Haddad, while stationed in North Africa. Shot down on a mission, then a prisoner of war, he suffered yet survived, marrying Yvette and becoming a vicar in the south of England. Liardet’s new novel moves back and forth in time, grounded in the present by the now long-widowed Acton, who's taking on a new parish in Upton, but interspersed with commentary by Yvette, drawn from her notebooks. These voice not only her side of the relationship, but also details of the miscarriage of their first child, an event which created a vast schism in Acton’s life. The consequences of that schism and Acton’s eventual owning of his shortcomings, as well as Yvette’s secrets, form the intense core of this hard-to-categorize narrative that also serves as a companion to Liardet’s impassioned previous novel—also set in Upton—We Must Be Brave (2019). The central figure of that book, Ellen Parr, takes a major role here too, befriending Acton, offering wisdom and more to the vicar whose beliefs and structures have suddenly turned to dust. At times affectingly pained and searching, at others reminiscent of the sweetly benign rural community of All Creatures Great and Small, the novel offers a quiet quest for honesty and connection that, though lacking the simple clarity of its predecessor, still offers emotional insight and a memorably humane vision.

A painful private journey is traced in a sympathetic yet fragmented tale.