Think of Me

December 1, 2021
Can a forgotten scarf be the key to unlocking decades of repressed memories of love and loss? Liardet's latest novel follows narrators James and Yvette from their meeting in war-torn Alexandria, and their service and courtship, through World War II. Yvette depicts their early marriage and relocation to small English villages where James serves as vicar, while James relates life thirty years later as, now widowed, he seeks a new posting. Both reveal the effects of the shattering loss of their first child to stillbirth, Yvette desperate for comfort but only finding a "new James," competent and stoic. James searches for the scarf's owner and discovers revelations about Yvette as his numbness abates. Readers who met Ellen Parr (We Must be Brave, 2019) will be pleased to find her among James Acton's neighbors in his new parish, joining a company of brilliantly rendered characters headed by Tom, James' bohemian college student son. Perfect for fans of Helen Simonson and Julia Kelly, this is beautiful, profoundly emotional, and peppered with sparks of humor.

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December 13, 2021
Liardet (We Must Be Brave) delivers an introspective story of an Anglican priest striving to move forward after his wife’s death. James Acton, an RAF pilot in WWII, flies dangerous missions in Tunisia and marries Yvette Haddad, whom he met in Egypt during the war. After their return to England, James assumes his duties as a priest on the Hampshire coast. Yvette dies in 1964 after a battle with leukemia, and 10 years later, with their son attending university, James takes a new job as vicar in the village of Upton, near where he and his wife first moved upon returning to England. James becomes better acquainted with residents such as the attractive widow Ellen Parr, and finds a scarf in the church resembling one of Yvette’s. As James meets people who once knew his wife, he discovers some of Yvette’s secrets, which, though painful, lead him to find hope for a chance at a new beginning with Ellen. Liardet’s complex narrative entices with its focus on how the characters are forever altered by the war and the tragic events of everyday life. Liardet’s vivid descriptions of WWII combat and the idyll of the English countryside will draw readers from the very first page. Agent: Deborah Schneider, Gelfman Schneider Literary Agents.

January 1, 2022
A widowed English vicar is forced to face the truth about himself, his marriage, and his faith when his home literally and figuratively falls to pieces. James Acton might be a member of the great generation who offered themselves up to fight in the Second World War, but he would be the last to say so. Modest and decent, he's an upright figure--a pilot in the Royal Air Force who met his future wife, Yvette Haddad, while stationed in North Africa. Shot down on a mission, then a prisoner of war, he suffered yet survived, marrying Yvette and becoming a vicar in the south of England. Liardet's new novel moves back and forth in time, grounded in the present by the now long-widowed Acton, who's taking on a new parish in Upton, but interspersed with commentary by Yvette, drawn from her notebooks. These voice not only her side of the relationship, but also details of the miscarriage of their first child, an event which created a vast schism in Acton's life. The consequences of that schism and Acton's eventual owning of his shortcomings, as well as Yvette's secrets, form the intense core of this hard-to-categorize narrative that also serves as a companion to Liardet's impassioned previous novel--also set in Upton--We Must Be Brave (2019). The central figure of that book, Ellen Parr, takes a major role here too, befriending Acton, offering wisdom and more to the vicar whose beliefs and structures have suddenly turned to dust. At times affectingly pained and searching, at others reminiscent of the sweetly benign rural community of All Creatures Great and Small, the novel offers a quiet quest for honesty and connection that, though lacking the simple clarity of its predecessor, still offers emotional insight and a memorably humane vision. A painful private journey is traced in a sympathetic yet fragmented tale.

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