THE HOUSE OF MEMORIES (Monica McInerney)

This is a sad, sad novel, but full of healing, as well.  Australian Ella O'Hanlon is a woman trying desperately to escape her grief after a fluke accident turns her idyllic life upside down and rips apart her family.  She leaves Aidan, the love of her life, her mother and step-father, her much-loved half-brother Charlie, and her spoiled step-sister Jess behind as she travels from job to job in Australia to try and escape the sadness and pain that have taken over her life.  She eventually ends up with her Uncle Lucas Fox in London.

Lucas, the brother of Ella's late father, has always been her rock and her escape.  Ella's parents divorced when she was a young girl and her mother, Meredith, remarried soon afterwards, to Walter, a German-born man with a son who would become Ella's best friend.  Half-sister Jessica, the adored and, apparently, perfect child, is born when Ella is 11 and soon afterwards Ella's own father is killed in a plane crash in Canada.  Ella and Lucas, her only living relative on her father's side, maintain a close relationship through letters and faxes throughout her childhood.  Lucas is an academic, maintaining a crumbling old house where he provides housing for a group of elite tutors.  It is there that Ella met and fell in love with Aidan, an Irishman fluent in 5 languages.  The two eventually moved back to Australia, married,and started a family together while Ella's mother, after being "discovered" in a shopping mall, becomes a rising star on Australian television with her comedy cooking show.  When her own life falls apart Ella is unable to share the grief process and begins her isolated journey towards a future without her son.

This novel is an emotional roller coaster of a journey.  You will find yourself alternately teary-eyed and amused, fascinated and horrified.  McInereney has a way making you feel personally acquainted with her characters, as if they are friends and colleagues instead of people who are not actually real, living human beings.  Maybe it's because some of the things that happen are the things that we all fear and hope will always happen to "someone else," despite the fact that we know in our hearts that any one of us could be Ella.  It's kind of a shock when you finish this book and realize that you are not going to spending any more time with Ella or Lucas, but you truly wish them the best because you are deeply invested in their lives and their future.