Patricia is stuck going senile in some old-folks home in England with only her family's visits to break the monotony. Except that it's not just one family that visits her, but two. When one set of children visits her, she can't imagine how she ever thought there were others, but in between visits she remembers both sets, and her respective lives with them, equally well. She starts to wonder — why does she remember two separate lives? Where did her life split apart?
And then she remembers.
The book from there cuts back and forth between Patricia's dual lives as Pat and Trish (and other name variations, too). In one life, she experiences a happy and fulfilling personal life but lives in a horror show of a world; in the other the world is a progressive wonderland but her personal life is a shambles.
Both lives are equally compelling, and I love the way Walton shapes them and makes them both seem like valid life choices. Walton's worldbuilding is amazing as well; Patricia’s two worlds are basically the one we live in with slight differences, but those differences really add up. This is a great book for lovers of domestic fiction and also people interested in alternate histories.
--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library
Find My Real Children in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.
And then she remembers.
The book from there cuts back and forth between Patricia's dual lives as Pat and Trish (and other name variations, too). In one life, she experiences a happy and fulfilling personal life but lives in a horror show of a world; in the other the world is a progressive wonderland but her personal life is a shambles.
Both lives are equally compelling, and I love the way Walton shapes them and makes them both seem like valid life choices. Walton's worldbuilding is amazing as well; Patricia’s two worlds are basically the one we live in with slight differences, but those differences really add up. This is a great book for lovers of domestic fiction and also people interested in alternate histories.
--Alison McCarty, Callahan Branch Library
Find My Real Children in the Nassau County Public Library System catalog.