Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Texas at Houston, Memorial Hermann Center for Healthcare Quality and Safety, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, Houston, Texas, USA With writing that sweeps you up in a maelstrom of emotions, depositing you right in the middle of this surreal, ethereal mystery you can only marvel at the delicate way the author handles these characters. As you listen to Will’s retelling of his love affair with Elsa you have to ask yourself certain questions. Is it entirely confabulation, the product of a mind descending into madness or succumbing to dementia? Is Laura, in her agitated and disturbed state following Will down the same path, inhabiting a world of make believe? Or is it something else entirely? The author gives his readers space and time to consider all theories as you relinquish reality and lose yourself in Will’s memories. For me it was enough that this lonely and misunderstood elderly man finally had someone willing to listen to his version of events and like Laura I became an avid listener, caring about the validity of his memories because it was vital for my peace of mind that I believed in the existence of this beautiful love affair. When you believe what your heart wants you to believe nothing else matters and I did not want for Elsa to be nothing more than a figment of Will’s imagination. For any reader, aspects of a novel will resonate more strongly than others so for me the actual outcome of this mystery almost became immaterial, secondary to the details of Will and Elsa’s enchanting love affair which is incredibly romantic. To start the new year I thought it might be a good idea to write a little post about The Frequency of Us, which is coming out in late March. It’s the story of a twenty-something carer named Laura, who is given the job of visiting an irascible old man living in a dilapidated house on the edge of Bath. Social services believe the man, Will Emerson, is suffering from dementia as he has is convinced he was once married to an Austrian refugee who disappeared during the bombing of the city in 1942 – but there is no record of her existence. Laura, who is having her own issues with anxiety and medication, starts to believe there is more to his story than the authorities realise, and is slowly pulled into the mystery of Will’s life. I’ve talked about mysterious goings on when referring to the plot, and there are some false endings, when you think that is it and feel disappointed (at least I did), but don’t worry, it is not. I know some readers weren’t totally convinced by the ending, and well, I’m still thinking about it (and will probably be thinking about it for a long time), but I liked it. I won’t go into suspension of disbelief, etc., etc. Yes, depending on how you look at it, it might not make sense from a conventional point of view, but that is not what this novel is about. Funding Studies mentioned in this paper were supported by an NIH K23 Career Development Award (K23CA125585), the VA National Center of Patient Safety, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (R18HS017820 and R18HS17244-02). HS and ANDM were supported in part by the Houston VA Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety (CIN 13-413).

The Frequency of Us by Keith Stuart - LoveReading The Frequency of Us by Keith Stuart - LoveReading

Best Books Set in the 1920s — from Stories That Shimmer with Champagne and Social Change, to Rip-roaring Reads Covering Crime, Colonialism and Beyond.

As the daughter of a librarian Jen's love of books started from a very early age. Her reading obsession continued throughout her teenage years when she studied both English Language and English Literature at college.

The Frequency of Us: A BBC2 Between the Covers book club pick

Whispering Stories was established in 2015. The blog is here to share our love of books and the bookish world, alongside our other passions in life. We are based in the UK. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a gentle mystery with a little romance, and a touch of history. A fascinating, beautiful, heartwarming novel. It kept me gripped from the very first chapter' -- BETH O'LEARYI love dual timeline stories and this is one of the best I’ve read. It’s told through Will’s journals from the late 1930s, and from Laura’s point of view in 2007. Writing is very approachable and good. I didn't have any trouble following through the timelines nor did I find the characters' names or stories confusing. I am surprised I haven't read this author before. An author with excellent potential indeed. In the Frequency of Us, we meet elderly Will Emerson and young carer Laura who has been given the job of assessing Will, who lives alone, to see whether he has dementia and if he needs to go into a care home.