Imagine, if you will, a room full of antiques. Some are unremarkable: a rocking chair, a china set, someone’s faded photo in a dusty frame. Others surprise you in their mundanity: a pair of scissors, a ragged baby blanket. When you lift the blanket, though, you are lost in an immediate rush of emotion: love, wonder, safety. Each item that you touch, you sense the energy that it holds and how the item’s last owner may have felt. The room itself seems to hold the space for each emotion to continue as if it still was.
Such is the story of The Memory Collectors, set a quick trip away in modern-day Vancouver. We meet Ev, who feels emotions and memories long left behind simply by holding an object that carries them. To Ev, this is a curse: she knows the power of emotional energy, and she knows how quickly it destroys those it touches. We then meet Harriet, for whom this ability is a gift. Harriet, certain that this energy can change the world, intends to create a “museum of memory” where objects, and their attached memories, can live on. When Ev and Harriet meet, Harriet is sure that Ev is the right person to help her create this museum. However, Ev’s history is dark, entrenched in family trauma, and she is not quick to trust Harriet – or herself. It soon becomes apparent that Harriet and Ev’s histories are more deeply connected than Ev realizes, adding a twist to the novel that asks: how far do good intentions go when the outcome causes inevitable harm?
This book spills over with magic, though it emerges in a way that it could happen to any one of us: the very definition, perhaps, of magical realism. Though Ev and Harriet’s abilities carry the story, it is the undertone of suspense that keeps the reader eager to turn the page. This is a great weekend read for those looking for something to escape into, while never feeling too far from home.
Ginny Dunnill is a Community Services Librarian at Richmond Public Library. For more great reads, visit the Library website at www.yourlibrary.ca
