BKMT READING GUIDES
Forgetting to Remember
by M.J. Rose
Paperback : 276 pages
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Introduction
Setting aside grief from the fallout of the second World War and putting her energy into curating an upcoming show critical to her career as the Keeper of the Metalworks at London’s renowned Victoria and Albert Museum, Jeannine Maycroft stumbles upon a unique collection of jewel-framed miniature eye portraits—a brilliant romantic device and clandestine love token of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
One piece among the assembly intrigues her more than all the others: a twilight-blue man’s eye framed by opals shimmering with enchanting flashes of fiery color. But the beauty is just the beginning. Not only is the painting a self-portrait of one of her favorite Pre-Raphaelite artists, Ashe Lloyd Lewis, but the brooch itself is a portal eight decades into the past.
Despite being cast into an era she was never meant to be in, Jeannine and Ashe develop an immediate and passionate bond, complicated by the undeniable fact that she does not belong in 1867, and the disaster about to destroy her family and reputation in her time.
Striving to live a dual life and dangerously straddling two time periods, Jeannine fights to protect her career and her father from scandal in the present while desperately trying to save her lover’s life in the past.
Forgetting to Remember—richly embroidered with historical detail and heartbreaking conflict—is another luscious and thrilling masterpiece by M.J. Rose. A beautiful and compelling story of art, war, magic, and survival, wrapped in a love that defies time.
Editorial Review
No Editorial Review Currently AvailableExcerpt
Jewels should stir something deep inside you, a primal urge for endless knowledge, and a desire to crack open the capsule that is the very structure of the jewel. The annals of history it has witnessed and the individual moments, glances, and fleeting ideas this object has been privy to are insurmountable to comprehend. But with one interaction, you brush up against that well of experience, with breadth and depth, and it all comes rushing to the surface of the present, just for you. — Levi Higgs, author, art historian. ...
Discussion Questions
From the author:Do you believe in time travel? How well do you think the author did in making up the rules that govern the moving from one era to another in this book?
Were you surprised at how restricted women’s movements were in 1867? As the author I really had no idea that things were that complicated at the time. How did it compare to her restrictions in 1947?
The title has a lot of resonance for different parts of the book – how did it fit in and where?
What did you think originally happened with the Botticelli painting – were you surprised?
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