NEW
RELEASE
Time to Let Go
by Christoph
Fischer
Christoph Fischer's new book, Time to Let Go, has just been released and has already garnered twenty 5-star reviews. You
can follow the tour on Christoph's Facebook page. The tour stops here today for an excerpt and
a guest post on Alzheimer's disease.
You can also check out Christoph's other books: The Luck of the Weissensteiners (read my blog post), Sebastian (read my blog post), and The Black Eagle Inn (read my blog post).
Description
Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.
Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides
to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with
her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run
away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that
she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer's disease and, while being
confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire
family are forced to reassess their lives.
The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a
time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens
on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.
Excerpt
He decided not to
wait for Hanna’s return. She was supposed to have been gone for only a few
hours but had not showed up yet. Knowing his daughter, anything was possible.
He was eager to move the day along so that he and Biddy could watch an entire
film before his wife would get tired and fall asleep. He had shortlisted
several films which he thought his wife might enjoy but he could not make up
his mind. After the last few evenings where Hanna had entertained her mother
with silly musical movies he felt inclined to make a similar choice, but was
not confident that he was the right company for Biddy to watch those films
with. Would another musical like Chicago
be of any use, without Hanna there to cheer Biddy on?
In the end he
settled for The Philadelphia Story, a
classic screw ball comedy that Biddy had always loved, not least for its
leading actors. The story line might intellectually be a little too demanding
for his wife but it had enough slap stick moments to promise a pleasant
evening.
Unfortunately Hanna
came home early, before her parents had managed to settle into the film.
Instantly distracted and excited by her daughter’s arrival, Biddy got up and
paid no more attention to the TV.
Walter tried to set
his wife up for telling the story about the swans and the dogs, but that memory
was gone.
“Swans? You are
talking a lot of nonsense today,” she said to Walter. “There are no swans
here.”
“Not now,” Walter
tried, unwilling to give up without further efforts to regain a memory for his
wife. “We just went to the lake. The same as yesterday when you went to the
lake with Hanna. The dog that chased the swans? That happened only two hours
ago!”
“Daddy, you are
upsetting her now. Leave her be,” Hanna said.
“Pumpkin, I can’t
just sit back and let the disease take everything away from our life without a
fight,” Walter said forcefully. “Sometimes you need to fight back. Biddy still
has moments of clarity, she needs to try and remember. We need to challenge
her. That swan and dog thing happened twice, that should stick somewhere in her
grey matter.”
Biddy said nothing
now and just stared sheepishly at the floor.
“What did you see at
the lake?” Walter probed his wife.
“A lake? Oh my. But
it is dark now!” Biddy protested.
“We are not going to
a lake,” Walter said impatiently. “We already went this afternoon. The swans?
The dog chasing them? Remember?”
“Swans,” Biddy said,
nonsensical. “Swans, ha!”
“This afternoon I
took you to the lake, Biddy. There was a dog chasing the swans,” Walter
repeated, a bit more patient and encouraging.
“Dog. Hmmn.”
“Yes, Biddy. A swan
and a dog. By the lake.”
“No, no, no,” Biddy
said confused and shook her head. Her eyes looked fearful.
Hanna was quite
shocked at the extreme disorientation her mother so suddenly displayed.
“I think you need to
leave her alone,” she said quietly to her father. “You are getting her all
worked up.”
“Dammit!” Walter
hissed. “Why can’t she simply remember?”
He slammed his fist
on the table and paced around the room.
“I told you many
times,” he said pointedly. “You had a run of very lucky days as far as her
illness is concerned. Since you got here she has been in great shape, but there
are phases where it is really bad, just like this. She makes no sense at all
now, does she?”
“If you know that,
why are you pushing her? You are just aggravating her instead of reassuring.”
“As I said, I am
trying to get a rise out of her,” Walter explained. “Yes you are right, she has
withdrawn now. But I owe it to her as her partner to try, maybe once snap her
back to reality, at least give it a good shot. Look at her, she doesn’t seem
there, I can’t always watch and accept it, that would be giving up.”
Praise for the Book
"This achingly beautiful swan song is honest, poignant, and
ultimately uplifting."
"A compelling, entertaining, and heartfelt story."
"A must read for anyone that has dealt with Alzheimer’s. The book
allows us to see this disease for what it is."
"Have Kleenex on hand and know that this emotional story will stay
with you, but it is worth the tears."
"A heart-felt and realistic story."
"Simply one of the best books I have ever read."
"A moving and insightful tale."
"An engaging story of how life can get in the way of the things that
should really matter and the things that your heart should hold on to."
"Christoph Fischer has done an amazing job with a difficult subject.
He shows a lot of understanding of human nature and a great deal of insight."
"A very difficult subject handled beautifully and with delicate
sensitivity. Bravo!"
"A fabulous, thought-provoking read."
"Time to Let Go touched
me."
"A truly wonderful, brave story."
"The scenes with both elders were frighteningly realistic. This
sometimes heart-wrenching story is one not to miss."
Guest Post by
Christoph Fischer
Alzheimer's Disease
My book is inspired by personal experiences with sufferers from the
disease. Nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who has relatives with
Alzheimer's and gradually stories and anecdotes about these patients have
entered the social dinner party circuit and become common knowledge.
Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease that cannot be easily understood in its
gravity and the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for the
victims and their families. There are different stages of the disease as it
progresses and patients can move through them at different paces and in varying
intensity. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation or a manual
of how to deal with the disease. The illness affects every patient differently
and there are many stories to tell and many aspects to cover. I hope that I can
bring some of those issues to the surface and help to make the gravity of the
disease more prominent. I did, however, decide to stay firmly in fiction and
family drama territory, and not to write a dramatized documentary on the
subject.
I have witnessed several different approaches to handling the disease by
both individuals and entire families, and I have learned that the people
involved in every case needs to work out what is best for them. In my book, a family work out their
particular approach, which is right for them. They have different ideas about
it and need to battle it out. These clashes fascinated me and I felt they were
worth exploring.
Issues of caring at home, mobile care assistance or institutionalising
patients are personal and, depending on where in the world you are, every
family has very different options or limitations. The ending in my book must be
seen in that context: as an individual "best" solution that uniquely
fits the Korhonen family.
As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific
overview of information and help available I recommend: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk in the UK, and http://www.alz.org in the US.
There are support groups, helplines and many other sources available in
most countries. These will be able to advise specifically for each individual situation.
I can also recommend Because We Care by Fran Lewis. This fantastic book has a comprehensive appendix with
more or less everything you need to know about the disease: Its stages,
personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.
For consistency, I exclusively used material relating to a medium
advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the
patients that inspired the story I have altered all of the events and used both
first and second hand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has
actually happened in that way. Apart from some outer parallels between my
characters and patients I witnessed, any similarities with real people, alive
or dead, are coincidental and unintended.
About the Author
Christoph Fischer was born in Germany as the son of a Sudeten-German
father and a Bavarian mother. Not a full local in the eyes and ears of his
peers, he developed an ambiguous sense of belonging and home in Bavaria. He
moved to Hamburg in pursuit of his studies and to lead a life of literary
indulgence. After a few years he moved on to the UK where he is still resident
today.
The Luck of the Weissensteiners, the first book in The Three Nations Trilogy, is Christoph's first published work. Sebastian, the second book in the series, was released in May 2013. The last book
in trilogy, The Black Eagle Inn, was released October 2013. His latest, Time to Let Go, has just been released.
Christoph is also a reviewer of independent books and on his
recommendation pages on this site he features interviews and reviews of the
books that have most captured his attention and appreciation by genre.
Links
