There’s a new genre of fiction proving popular, featuring older people who are residents of aged care facilities. Do we call it boomer-lit or maybe senior-lit? Joanna Nell (The Single Ladies of Jacaranda Retirement Village) and Richard Osman (The Thursday Murder Club) are authors who have proved adept at writing about characters at that later stage of their lives.
Johnston is not yet in the order of those authors, but she has written a heartwarming novel about a nursing home, its residents and staff, with some twists and a big helping of love.
Johnston has worked in a nursing home, so knows the atmosphere, the routines and how to react to a patient with dementia.
Readers need to suspend disbelief early in the novel when Frederick Fife, penniless, still mourning the death of his wife, and about to be homeless, stumbles on an elderly man who closely resembles him, in a wheelchair by the river, part of a group outing from a nursing home.
That man has died and as Fred wheels him back, the wheelchair overturns, sending the body into the river and Fred sprawling. Attendants rush to his aid, presuming he is the dead man, Bernard. When he protests that he is not Bernard, but Fred, staff think it is just Bernard’s dementia talking. So Fred starts a new ‘borrowed’ life.
Not exactly a romp, this novel has parallel stories of a family facing a child’s terminal illness, and a staff member’s own domestic drama, all woven into a story about ageing, acceptance and love.
Reviewed by Jennifer Somerville
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anna Johnston is a former baby, aspiring octogenarian and emerging Australian author with a love for the heartfelt and hilarious. She grew up in country Victoria before moving to Melbourne where she lives joyously with her husband and daughters by the beach.
Anna left an imminent career in medicine to follow her heart into her grandfather’s nursing home where she became the social support coordinator, taking great delight in shaking up the usual program. When injury left her unable to continue working in aged care, she began to write about it, channelling her love for older people onto the page. Anna has enjoyed a lifelong passion for theatre, screenplay, travel, and creative writing.
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