Totally engrossing, charming and poetic. Wasn’t able to put it down, but at times didn’t want to turn the page out of pure anxiety of what might become of Tommy L. A character you so desperately want to find happiness and who undergoes so many challenges, twists and turns, and yet so much of this book is joyful and filled with hope.

Defiantly a book to be remembered, would read again and highly recommend!

Ps: can’t believe this is the author first novel. Outstanding writing!

“He knew there was something different about him, something uniquely … wrong. Normal kids don’t wake up each year as a stranger in their own lives, their entire existence wiped clean from the planet, the same way he arrived at class each morning to find the previous day’s lesson scrubbed from the chalkboard … when he went through the Reset, it was as though he’d never existed and the holes left in others’ lives were either wallpapered over or neatly filled by other people.”

How To Be Remembered is the first novel by Australian journalist, producer and podcaster, Michael Thompson. By the time he is in his teens, Tommy Llewellyn is used to the Reset he experiences every January fifth, handling it fairly smoothly. He’s lucky, after his birth parents failed to recognise him on his first Reset, to have landed in a small-town foster home with a kind manager who accepts this new boy each year with love and care.

But then he falls in love with another foster, and he realises the object of his passion might know, care for, perhaps even love, him on January fourth, but will see him as a stranger the next day. His initial despair affects his whole attitude to school, to friends, to life. But then he begins theorising: how can he prevent this heartbreaking loss? He accidentally finds a loophole in the yearly Reset, and learns how to take advantage of it.

By the time he turns eighteen and has to leave the foster home, he has a plan that involves moving to the city, going into business with a friend he met in hospital, finding the girl he has loved since he was fourteen, and creating a happy home. If he ever finds her and tells her the truth, though, she’ll surely be calling in the psychiatrists…

His determination is strong, even when his naivete sometimes ends in misfortune. He is hard-working and well-intentioned, and his basic goodness shines through even when his friends are repeatedly faced with a stranger. Tommy is also clever and resourceful, diligently working towards his goal despite the occasional setback, which only serves to make him more resilient. Does he manage to succeed, when it often seems that the Universe is against him?

Thompson gives the reader a well-executed plot that will keep the pages turning. The initial concept will remind some readers of Claire North’s The Sudden Appearance of Hope, but Thompson takes his story in quite a different direction. His protagonist is likeable and easy to cheer on, to hope for a good outcome. This excellent debut novel is clever, heart-warming and uplifting, and more from this author is definitely welcome.
This unbiased review is from a copy provided by Allen & Unwin.