Her Mother's Hands

‘Jaio is undoubtedly a very skilful narrator’ – Iñigo Roque Gara

Have you ever had the feeling of not truly knowing your nearest and dearest? The precarious balance in the life of Nerea, a thirty-something journalist, breaks down when her mother, Luisa, is hospitalised with total amnesia. Nerea, who feels guilty for not having recognised the symptoms that afflicted her mother, now finds a person almost unknown to her. Luisa is haunted by memories of a romance from her youth and soon Nerea begins to discover that the two women share much more than they believe.

Her Mother’s Hands is an examination of the deepest human bonds and a beautiful and moving tribute to life.

Her Mother's Hands is Jaio’s début novel, and remains one of the bestselling books in the Basque literary scene in recent years. The novel has been adapted for the big screen, filmed by Mireia Gabilondo, and presented at the Donostia Zinemaldia, the San Sebastián International Film Festival. -- Publisher: Parthian Books
Basque writer Karmele Jaio’s first novel, sensitively translated here by Kristin Addis, opens with a lovely image of a little girl sitting on the beach in her boat made of sand as the tide comes in: ‘The water advances. […] She knows that the sea will win the battle in the end and that the waves will wash away her ship of sand like a tongue licks away ice cream, but even so, she defends her small realm with tooth and claw. With her jaw firmly set.’ The child is Nerea, daughter of Luisa and niece of Dolores – three feisty women whose stories and secrets, as well as the strong bond between them, are revealed as the novel unfolds. Now in her thirties, Nerea is a busy journalist struggling to find a work/life balance. Her English husband, Lewis, is a freelance translator who works from home and therefore takes most of the responsibility for looking after their young daughter, Maialen. Nerea feels that she is missing out on her family, often arriving home in the evening after Maialen has gone to bed, and snatching only rare moments with Lewis. She has also been unconsciously turning a blind eye to the fact that her widowed mother is showing signs of forgetfulness, and is racked by guilt when Luisa is hospitalised after being found wandering the streets suffering from total amnesia. Aunt Dolores lives in Frankfurt, but flies home immediately to be at her sister’s and her niece’s side: ‘Her aunt is like a balm, like an ointment for a wound’, and she ‘always has a story about the past to explain the present.’ Luisa does not speak or recognise anyone. She is lost in a world of her own. And then one night she says a name, over and over again: Herman. She has returned to the world of her youth, remembering a lost lover whose name has never been mentioned, and whose existence has remained a secret to everyone except Dolores. Like mother like daughter, in a strange synchronicity, Nerea also has a lost lover she has never mentioned to her husband. But now, fifteen years later, Karlos has returned – in the flesh rather than merely in memory. With slow and perfect pacing, Jaio pieces together the stories of two lost loves kept secret: old photographs evoke treasured moments and forgotten feelings, and memories stir, revealing the power of the past, especially if it is suppressed. The relationships between the three women are portrayed with tenderness and gentle humour, and the dénouement confirms that Her Mother’s Hands is a book that comes straight from the heart. -- Suzy Ceulan Hughes @ www.gwales.com