Bestselling novelist Mary Hogan called What We Remember a “beautifully rendered novel.”
As young wives and mothers, four women find comfort in friendship, and then life begins to unravel. In the aftermath of unbearable tragedy, Alice embarks on a spiritual journey that takes her to California, while Nina starts painting to work through her grief. Theresa is left to deal with the repercussions of a bitter divorce that has far-reaching consequences for both of her children. And Charlotte? She’s harboring a secret that could jeopardize the perfect life she has worked so hard to create.
Twenty years later when Charlotte is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she asks her daughter to find her old friends and arrange a reunion in Cape May before her memories are erased. Before the worst happened, they had spent two weeks there with their children, a watershed moment for all of them. Time and distance have kept them apart, but as they rekindle their friendship, remembering that they were their best selves when they were together, they find the peace that has eluded them for so long.
Marianne Dougherty is an award-winning writer and beauty editor who has appeared on Live in L.A., Lifetime’s New Attitudes and Weekend Today. Her work has appeared in both consumer and trade magazines, and in 2018 and 2022 she was a finalist for a Golden Quill Award for journalistic excellence. A Pittsburgh native, she resides in Santa Barbara, California, where she is on the faculty of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference. What We Remember is her first novel.