The Hoarder's Widow - by Allie Cresswell (Paperback)
About this item
Highlights
- Suddenly-widowed Maisie sets out to clear her late husband's collection; wonky furniture and balding rugs, bolts of material for upholstery projects he never got round to, other people's trash brought home from car boot sales and rescued from the tip.
- Author(s): Allie Cresswell
- 330 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Psychological
Description
About the Book
An uplifting novel about the consequences of hoarding, women's friendships and life after bereavement from award-winning British author Allie Cresswell.
Book Synopsis
Suddenly-widowed Maisie sets out to clear her late husband's collection; wonky furniture and balding rugs, bolts of material for upholstery projects he never got round to, other people's trash brought home from car boot sales and rescued from the tip. The hoard is endless, stacked into every room in the house, teetering in piles along the landing and forming a scree up the stairs. It is all part of Clifford's waste-not way of thinking in which everything, no matter how broken or obscure, can be re-cycled or re-purposed into something useful or, if kept long enough, will one day be valuable. He had believed in his vision as ardently as any mystic in his holy revelation but now, without the clear projection of his vision to light it up for her as what it would be, it appears to Maisie more grimly than ever as what it is: junk. As Maisie disassembles his stash she is forced to confront the issues which drove her husband to squirrel away other people's rubbish; after all, she knows virtually nothing about his life before they met. Finally, in the last bastion of his accumulation, she discovers the key to his hoarding and understands - much too late - the man she married.Then, with empty rooms in a house which is too big for her, she must ask herself: what next?
Review Quotes
It was difficult to put this book down and I found myself completely absorbed in both the characters and the mystery.
A great read with relatable characters.
Maisie's personal journey and the friendships, knowledge and family she gains along the way are as warm and bright and comforting as a shiny copper kettle calling the reader to tea. The story is infused with a deep empathy and tenderness for the flawed and difficult personalities struggling with their challenges.
A disturbing topic, hoarding, is covered with kindness, mystery, and depth. When the book ended I wish it hadn't. As Ms. Cresswell tends to do, it had a slow start but hooked me without knowing why. It was a joy to pick it up whenever I had a chance to read.