From the New York Timesβbestselling author of The Jane Austen Book Club, the story of an American family, middle class in middle America, ordinary in every way but one. But that exception is the beating heart of this extraordinary novel.
Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and our narrator, Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. βI spent the first eighteen years of my life defined by this one fact: that I was raised with a chimpanzee,β she tells us. βItβs never going to be the first thing I share with someone. I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you arenβt thinking of her as my sister. But until Fernβs expulsion, Iβd scarcely known a moment alone. She was my twin, my funhouse mirror, my whirlwind other half, and I loved her as a sister.β
Rosemary was not yet six when Fern was removed. Over the years, sheβs managed to block a lot of memories. Sheβs smart, vulnerable, innocent, and culpable. With some guile, she guides us through the darkness, penetrating secrets and unearthing memories, leading us deeper into the mystery she has dangled before us from the start. Stripping off the protective masks that have hidden truths too painful to acknowledge, in the end, βRosemaryβ truly is for remembrance.
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