Blog Tour: When I Come Home Again by Caroline Scott

Every now and again a book comes along which makes you really stop and think. This is one of those books.

When a man is arrested for damaging a statue in Durham Cathedral, police are puzzled that he seems to have no memory of his life, how he got there, or who he is. He is named Adam Galilee by the policeman, and then transferred to a psychiatric facility in Cumbria, Fellside House.

 

There, over the course of several years, the doctors try to unravel the puzzle of who the man is and why it is that he seems to have chosen to forget his past. They try encouraging him to talk, as well as hypnotism and other treatments. Clearly Adam is traumatised, but what is it that he saw or did during the war. There are things that Adam does know - he is a talented sketcher of nature, and there is one face that he draws over and over again.

One of the doctors, James, is dealing with his own trauma from the war, or rather not dealing with it. He and his wife Caitlin have moved to Fellside House to effectively start their lives together. Whilst Caitlin and James have been married for several years, they have spent most of that time separated by war. And as much as James is helping Adam, he is dealing with his own memories, many of which involve the death of Caitlin's brother.

When the facility is visited by a journalist, they take a photo of Adam and publish it, thinking that maybe Adam's real family might come forward. Instead, dozens of people come forward, claiming that Adam is their missing husband, brother, or son, back from the dead.

Part of what is intriguing about this story is how is it that so many people can think that this man, is their son. Surely, there are things about each of us that make us uniquely us and therefore that there is only one family that we belong too, or is

At it's heart this book is more than a story. It is a study of the effect of trauma on different people, about the effect of loss and about identity. This is a book that you have to think about, you can't rush through it. It is a thought provoking read.

Thanks to Random Things Tours for the review copy

About the book

They need him to remember. He wants to forget.

1918. In the last week of the First World War, a uniformed soldier is arrested in Durham Cathedral. When questioned, it becomes clear he has no memory of who he is or how he came to be there.

The soldier is given the name Adam and transferred to a rehabilitation home where his doctor James is determined to recover who this man once was. But Adam doesn’t want to remember. Unwilling to relive the trauma of war, Adam has locked his memory away, seemingly for good.

When a newspaper publishes a feature about Adam, three women come forward, each claiming that he is someone she lost in the war. But does he believe any of these women? Or is there another family out there waiting for him to come home?

Based on true events, When I Come Home Again is a deeply moving and powerful story of a nation’s outpouring of grief, and the search for hope in the aftermath of war.