People Who Knew Me

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I enjoyed the premise of this novel though wasn’t entirely sure about the logistics of changing your name when you’re supposedly dead. And never being found out. This story got me in from the outset, though I never warmed to Emily/Connie at any point. Despite not liking the main character I wanted to keep reading so that is a sign of good writing, especially when this is a debut novel. Interested to see what else this author writes. She must decide how to explain her lies, her secrets, her selfish decisions - and ultimately, her ‘widowed’ husband. Everything she thought she had fled from when she pretended to die in New York. Emily Morris got her happily-ever-after earlier than most. Married at a young age to a man she loved passionately, she was building the life she always wanted. But when enormous stress threatened her marriage, Emily made some rash decisions. That’s when she fell in love with someone else. That’s when she got pregnant.

But fourteen years later, a life-threatening diagnosis forces her to deal with the legacy of what she left behind.Emily is a faulty character...( she runs away and changes her identity leaving her husband to think she died in 911. Did she run because she felt her entire life had been a lie ....and by living a REAL LIE, she felt as if she was living a more TRUTHFUL LIE? The story is told by Emily, an admittedly flawed human who some readers may not like. But Emily has found herself in a tough life and really has no option but to live the life of a martyr, or live the life of a complete asshole. Enter 9/11. What would you have done? I don't think I would do as Emily did, but I don't dare judge the decision she made - no one should until you've walked in those particular shoes. Resolved to tell her husband of the affair and to leave him for the father of her child, Emily’s plans are thwarted when the world is suddenly split open on 9/11. It’s amid terrible tragedy that she finds her freedom, as she leaves New York City to start a new life. It’s not easy, but Emily---now Connie Prynne —forges a new happily-ever-after in California. But when a life-threatening diagnosis upends her life, she is forced to rethink her life for the good of her thirteen-year-old daughter.

I have goodread friends who enjoyed this book but I'll be the outlier. I don't mind an unlikable character if I find the story itself well-written and compelling. But in this case the protagonist was so selfish I couldn't get past it, maybe because my husband and I are/have been caretakers of elderly parents. What she ultimately decided to do to her husband was unforgivable. Hooper says in her dedication, "This book is for all those people -- cowardly and courageous -- who dare to imagine leaving it all behind." I went to see Dancing at Lughnasa at the National, which was so moving in such unexpected ways. The play works a strange kind of magic. At the end, I had tears streaming down my face and couldn’t quite explain why. It taps into something very primal about family and memory.Connie's character makes me sad. Connie has spent the last 14 years raising and protecting Claire from her past, only inviting few people into her life so that she does not make connections she may have to break again one day, and doesn't want to disappoint more people. Connie just wants to be the best mother possible; give Claire everything she never had and more. You also narrate documentary podcast Mother, Neighbor, Russian Spy , about deep-cover Russian spies in 00s America. That’s another story of lies and fake identities… It’s not too shabby at the moment. There have always been great films with fierce, full-on, female characters who were “too much”. Think about Bette Davis’s roles or John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence. I played journalist Marie Colvin in A Private War, who was an amazingly complicated figure to put on screen. Now television has also embraced outspoken women who don’t conform to traditional expectations of femininity – and with those characters come interesting opportunities for actresses. Starring Rosamund Pike and Hugh Laurie, Kyle Soller, Isabella Sermon and Alfred Enoch. The first audio drama from the makers of Bad Sisters, People Who Knew Me is a 10-part series, written and directed by Daniella Isaacs, adapted from the book by Kim Hooper.