People Who Knew Me

Product Information

I received an advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Emily recreates herself and has the baby in California. Life is going well until she gets cancer. Now, this is when the novel is in full bloom as it makes the reader realize all the stupid things well-intentioned people say to cancer sufferers. This is when the novel illuminates “what NOT to say or do to a cancer person.” Hooper writes the feelings of Emily (now Connie) so beautifully that one cannot feel the strains and pain of living with cancer and being the sole supporter of a teenage girl. It’s impossible not to wonder what would have been different had Connie stayed – admitting to the affair and everything else. Tangentially, yes. I had a boyfriend who was close friends with her, so we hung out a few times. I liked her enormously. She took me to the ballet once. I remember it clearly because ballet had been her life as a young girl and she took it seriously. Going to see dance with Chelsea was fascinating because of her insights. Meanwhile in present day California Connie’s built her life around her daughter Claire who’s approaching her 14th birthday. Claire believes her father died and the pair are close and happy until a cancer diagnosis blows their world apart. Hooper says in her dedication, "This book is for all those people -- cowardly and courageous -- who dare to imagine leaving it all behind."

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It’s not too shabby at the moment. There have always been great films with fierce, full-on, female characters who were “too much”. Think about Bette Davis’s roles or John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence. I played journalist Marie Colvin in A Private War, who was an amazingly complicated figure to put on screen. Now television has also embraced outspoken women who don’t conform to traditional expectations of femininity – and with those characters come interesting opportunities for actresses. This book had my attention the whole way, but I still found the ending less than satisfying. It was still an interesting story.

Emily does not have a close relationship with her mother. How do you think her upbringing shapes her character and relationships? How does it influence the way she mothers Claire?Emily Morris uses 9/11 to fake her own death and run away to start a new life in California as Connie Prynne. Fourteen years later, now with a teenage daughter by her side, Connie is diagnosed with breast cancer. She will be forced to confront her past so that her daughter will not be left on her own if she does not survive. She must decide how to explain her lies, her secrets, her selfish decisions – and ultimately her ‘widowed’ husband. Everything she thought she had fled from when she pretended to die in New York. I, myself was surprised to see that this is the author of “No Hiding in Boise” which I listened to on Audible last year-and which made my favorites list!! 💖 The first audio drama from the makers of Bad Sisters, People Who Knew Me is a 10-part series, written and directed by Daniella Isaacs, adapted from the book by Kim Hooper, starring Rosamund Pike (I Care A Lot, Gone Girl), Hugh Laurie (House, The Night Manager), Isabella Sermon (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Kyle Soller (Andor, Poldark), Alfred Enoch (Harry Potter), Daniella Isaacs (Fleabag, Ladhood), and Jessica Darrow (Encanto).