My Name Is Memory by Ann Brashares
Summary:
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and The Last Summer (of You and Me) comes an imaginative, inspired, magical book-a love story that lasts more than a lifetime. Daniel has spent centuries falling in love with the same girl. Life after life, crossing continents and dynasties, he and Sophia (despite her changing name and form) have been drawn together-and he remembers it all. Daniel has “the memory”, the ability to recall past lives and recognize souls of those he’s previously known. It is a gift and a curse. For all the times that he and Sophia have been drawn together throughout history, they have also been torn painfully, fatally, apart. A love always too short.
Interwoven through Sophia and Daniel’s unfolding present day relationship are glimpses of their expansive history together. From 552 Asia Minor to 1918 England and 1972 Virginia, the two souls share a long and sometimes torturous path of seeking each other time and time again. But just when young Sophia (now “Lucy” in the present) finally begins to awaken to the secret of their shared past, to understand the true reason for the strength of their attraction, the mysterious force that has always torn them apart reappears. Ultimately, they must come to understand what stands in the way of their love if they are ever to spend a lifetime together.
A magical, suspenseful, heartbreaking story of true love, My Name is Memoryproves the power and endurance of a union that was meant to be.
My Review:
Can you imagine waiting over a thousand years to finally be with the one person you love?
That’s the story in My Name is Memory. Daniel is a man equipped with an extraordinary memory – and he knows, as a result of that memory, that many lives are recycled, some newer and some, like his, older.
Daniel first fell in love with Sophie when he watched her standing in the door of a home he set on fire. Through the years and lives he meets up with Sophie and until finally, in 2006, they meet again… and this time he’s determined to not let her go.
I don’t personally believe in reincarnation but, being as this was more of a science fiction type novel (Daniel’s brother, Joachim, is a good example of that), I didn’t mind it as the gimmick for this book. Although I didn’t find myself crying as I did in other Brashares novels (Sisterhood anyone?) I did find myself deeply touched and .. disappointed by the ending.
The book is a beautiful read and one I’d recommend to lovers of books like The Time Traveler’s Wife. If you pick it up simply because of the author and are expecting another Sisterhood-type book, however, you may just be disappointed.
