Mother's Gifts

When Cecilie Enger’s mother is admitted to a nursing home, with severe Alzheimer, the house Cecilie grew up in is emptied and sold in the space of one weekend.

Whilst clearing out the house Cecilie comes across her mother’s meticulous records of the family’s Christmas gifts over four decades.

Gifts given and gifts received, to and from people with very different lives.  With the lists as a starting point Enger writes the history of her family from the late 19th century until today.

Parallel to this story runs another story.  In the course of the two years it has taken Cecilie Enger to write Mother's Gifts, we see the gradual eradication of her mother’s memory and personality.

This is a novel about gifts, memory and our yearning to hold on to time.

Winner of the Bookseller's Prize 2013
Shortlisted for the Critics' Prize 2013
100,000 copies sold in hardback and paperback