It reads like a soap opera about unrealistic, beautiful people.

Sometimes I find it ironic how we get drawn to a certain genre of storylines without a conscious effort to do so. For some unknown reason I have recently read two books that have been intertwined between the real world and the spiritual world. The first was A Sudden Light (Garth Stein) and now The Memory Thief (Emily Colin). Both have been very enjoyable stories but from total opposite spectrums. The Memory Thief is told from the perspective of three different people: Madeleine (mother, wife, freelance writer and now widow); Aiden (husband, father, mountain climber, dare-devil, now deceased); and Nicholas (single, not happy but not unhappy either, uneventful lifestyle and motorcycle accident survivor with no memory). The author does a beautiful job of pulling you into each of their stories and as you bob and weave through their lives you almost become one with their passion and their compassion (and trust me there is a difference).

Let’s pretend for a moment that perhaps it IS possible for people to reach out to us after their death. What would you want them to tell you? What would you want to tell them? Would you be receptive and able to open your heart AND your mind to hear or feel their presence? Is it wise for them to linger here after death? Is it practical for us to WANT them to remain? Now take the word “pretend” out of the equation and you have the floorplan for The Memory Thief.

I loved the depth of all the characters, even the innocence of the young child, Gabe. Oh, if we could all only continue to see life through the eyes of child. If we could all see the positive side of life and not be limited by what we think is not possible or achievable. The amount of happiness we receive in life is sometimes commensurate with the amount of effort we put in to finding it. The Memory Thief never really stole memories – it merely brought light and clarity to those who were willing to receive it.