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A timely tale of ownership and loss, loneliness and connection, and a meditation on all the stuff in our lives.
Home staging is an art of erasure. But in some cases—no matter how much clutter you remove, or how many coats of white paint you apply—stains bleed through, and memories rise from the walls like ghosts. Harriet, an elderly poet whose eccentricities have been compounded by years of living alone, must sell her beloved house. Having been recently diagnosed with dementia, she is being moved into a care facility against her wishes. When stagers Eleanor and Jacob are hired for the job, they quickly find themselves immersed in Harriet’s brimming and mysterious world, but as they struggle to help her, their own lives are unravelling.
Keep is a meditation on all the stuff in our lives—from the singular, handcrafted artifact to indelible, mass-produced plastics. As Jenny Haysom excavates the material of our domestic spaces, she centres the people within them and celebrates the power of memory, even when it falters.
"Tender, witty, and wise, Jenny Haysom’s Keep brims with insights about the perils and serendipities of change at various stages of life—a wonderful novel." —Claire Messud, author of This Strange Eventful History
"This gentle novel thoughtfully explores how the things we choose to keep can hold us back, and the opportunity for growth that can come from letting go." —Kim van Alkemade, New York Times bestselling author of Counting Lost Stars
“[Haysom’s] prose is remarkable in its spareness. She adeptly represents intergenerational lives with gentleness, heart, and veracity.” — Booklist, STARRED Review
“Astute and appealing … Keep is a compassionate novel in which three people learn that history and memory are ‘fluent and fallible.’” — Foreword
“Keep is a wry yet tender exploration of the way our homes and possessions carry our memories and reflect our values; we should not, the novel suggests, be too ruthless in our sorting.” — Quill & Quire
"A rewarding and memorable read … Keep is filled with images and ideas well worth preserving." — Winnipeg Free Press
“Haysom is tender and generous with her characters … This is a book for anyone who needs to sit with and explore their feelings about material objects, and what we do with them, both as we live and as we prepare for the next stage in our lives.” — The Miramichi Reader
“The braided narrative [in Keep] is so well balanced, each character a vivid and engaging presence in the novel, and it’s interesting (and refreshing!) to encounter a book presenting three different generations together and the genuine connections between them.” — Pickle Me This Blog
“Jenny Haysom reminds us that keeping is a complex, multilayered process ... [and] poignantly invites us to consider our mortality and impermanence.” — Getting Lit with Linda Podcast