Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert
Description
Distinguished Favorite, New Fiction, 2025 Independent Press Award
Hawthorne Prize Finalist (Fiction), 2025 American Writing Award
Finalist, General
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Fiction, 2025 International Book Award
Finalist, Northeast Regional Fiction, 2025 National Indie Excellence Award
Honorable Mention, General Fiction, 2025 London Book Festival
The memory of who we are survives in those we love. In Conversations with My Mother: a Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast, an elderly, good-hearted Francophone struggles with dementia as her small town succumbs to real-estate development. Focused on her relationship with her acerbic caregiver daughter and peripatetic businessman son, the novel examines the siblings' attempts to cope with their mother's deepening decline and the impending sale of the family property to underwrite her care. A first-person present narrative with a strong sense of place that draws parallels between the beleaguered heroine's persistent kindness and the embattled Maine coast's enduring beauty, the book is as much about gain as it is about loss, and, ultimately, is more about hope than regret.
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