So Many Ways To Begin

In this potent examination of family and memory Jon McGregor charts one mans voyage of selfdiscovery. Like Kazuo Ishiguros The Remains of the Day So Many Ways to Begin is rich in the intimate details that shape a life the subtle strain that defines human relationships and the personal history that forms identity. David Carter the novels protagonist takes a keen interest in history as a boy. Encouraged by his doting Aunt Julia he begins collecting the things that tell his story a birth certificate school report cards annotated cinema and train tickets. After finishing school he finds the perfect job for his lifetime obsessioncurator at a local history museum. His professional and romantic lives take shape as his beloved aunt and mentors unravels. Lost in a fog of senility Julia lets slip that David had been adopted. Over the course of the next decades as David and his wife Eleanor live out their livesstruggling through early marriage professional disappointments the birth of their daughter Eleanors depression and an affair that ends badly David attempts to physically piece together his past finding meaning and connection where he least expects it.