Book Club - Lisa Kenway’s All You Took From Me

Final Draft - Great Conversations

Lisa Kenway is an Australian writer and anaesthetist. Her debut novel, All You Took From Me, was longlisted for the 2020 Richell Prize

When Clare wakes in a bed in the hospital where she works as an anesthetist she has only questions.

When doctors inform her she was in a car accident, that it took the life of her beloved husband, she begins to realise how much she has lost. How did it come to this?

Clare can’t remember a thing about the accident. Why were they on the deserted road? Why was Ray wearing chainmail armour?

As Clare struggles to pull her life back together she is tormented by a towering figure, seemingly stalking her and leaving threatening warnings. The hospital is insisting Clare must see a counselor if she wants to return to work, but it's looking to Clare like she’ll need even more drastic measures if she wants to regain her memories before what she has lost comes back to take what is left.

All You Took From Me is a fascinating exploration into memory and identity. Clare embodies the unreliable narrator and the reader is invited along as she tries to discover if she can even trust herself.

The novel traverses Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains so you know I enjoyed seeing my local area represented. The relative and expanse and solitude of the Mountains is used to effect as the story unfolds and we learn what Clare and her husband had been up to in the days and weeks prior to their accident.

As we follow Clare in her confusion, the tension is ratcheted up by the appearance of her mysterious stalker. There is a certain inelegance to the threats that Clare is in no position to ignore. The rising tension increases the stakes to the point that Clare is willing to try some radical, even desperate means to regain her memory and control over her life. What follows is an innovative exploration of memory and how our subconscious feeds into our everyday.

Clare’s journey of self discovery is suitably fraught and makes for an entertaining look into the depths contained within our seemingly everyday lives.

All You Took From Me is an effective thriller and a must read for lovers of Sydney and surrounds.