Christoph Fischer I am at awe!!! “TIME TO LET GO” is another remarkable book!!!
It is the 4th book I have read by Christoph Fisher and I am rendered speechless. In this novel, the author has elegantly and brilliantly guided me through the difficult moments in the life of a British family that is trying to cope with the complexity of the heartwrenching disease Alzheimer’s.

Walter Korhonen is a man full of principals. He fell in love and married Biddy, a capable, energetic and warm person and together they raised 3 children, Hannah, a flight attendant, Henrik and Patrick. Walter is now retired and taking care of Biddy who is battling Alzheimer’s.

Hannah is going through a crisis of her own due to an incident that took place on one of her flights. Hannah tried hard to revive a woman who was not breathing but the woman died. Her husband decided to sue the airlines for letting his wife die on their watch. Hannah is now on a leave of absence until the issue is resolved. She decided to spend time with her parents trying to get away from the phone calls and the intruding reporters.

The disease has now made her mother lose focus and slowly has turned her to a confused and helpless individual. Hannah knew that her mother did not recognize her any longer, but against her fathers protests, she tried to get her mother involved in doing ordinary things with her such as cooking, taking walks, and going to the grocery store.

Walter on the other hand, at the beginning of Biddy’s decline, he refused to accept the fact that her disease was progressing and something like that would definitely threaten their future together. Gradually he did consent that his wife had a clinical disease that would change their lives forever. Biddy’s decline was slowly taking pieces of Walter’s heart away, leaving him utterly heartbroken, but unwilling to let go and fighting to cope each and every day. I fell in love with each and every character in the story.

I found myself clinging to the book with tears running down my face. I had been on the exact crossroad with a member of my own family. Walter’s love and commitment to his beloved Biddy was heartwarming. Against his children’s advise to put Biddy into a home where they could take care of her, he decided to stand by her for better or worse, and try to enjoy every moment while sitting on the sofa in their own home holding her hand, until he couldn’t do it any longer.

The book is fantastic…There was a hint of romance between Hannah and a young paramedic Karim but it never came to flourish for various reasons. I could go on and on about this awesome book, but I don’t want to ruin it for the other readers. All I can say is that if you don’t read this book it will be a big mistake. I will highly recommend it to every person I know as an excellent written book with a lot of substance. Books like this one, keep my love for reading alive. Thank you Christoph Fischer for another outstanding novel. ( )

Christoph Fischer���s newest novel, Time to Let Go, is a tragic story, which ends not with a violent death, but with the slow and deteriorating journey of a loved one���s battle with Alzheimer���s disease. The once vibrant and intelligent Biddy is reduced to being treated like a young child by her husband Walter, who although well intentioned, rages at how powerless he is to control the ravages of her disease: ���Dammit! Why can���t she remember?���
The story revolves around an emotionally dysfunctional family. Walter���s controlling and demanding attitude has alienated his three children and he finds himself alone to deal with his ailing wife. The eldest son, Henrik, as rigid and judgemental as the father, focuses solely on boosting his successful career, and only contacts his elderly parents when his business allows curt phone calls and cameo appearances to put them in line. Hanna, the only child to retain any emotion attachment, has succeeded in escaping her father���s overbearing attitude with a busy career with the airlines. The youngest son has given up completely on his father���s and brother���s criticism by embracing an altruistic approach to life: he chooses to spend his time with people who need his help rather than wasting it on a family who refuses it.
This is a well-crafted story with believable characters that keeps the readers enthralled on a highly emotional and intellectual level���definitely a must read.
( )

This book may be Fischer's best yet. I read it in one afternoon and literally could not put it down.

Buddy is a sweet woman dealing with the effects of Alzheimer's disease. We get a sense of her views of her plight through the memories of her husband, Walter.

Walter is simply devastated by his wife's illness and deals with it any way he can- even when his children don't approve.

When his daughter, Hannah, comes to visit after a problem at work, his life is turned upside down, and as a result, is forced to face the reality of Buddy's illness in a way he hadn't before.

I loved this book for its heart. It is a must read for anyone looking for something a little different. ( )

Before I talk about the quality of the writing, let me outline the story in Time To Let Go. Having witnessed an incident on a plane, Hanna Korhonen, a flight attendant, comes to realize how quickly life can be over. Which brings to mind her parents, who are almost 80 years old. She come home to them, with the hope of running away from her own difficulties at work—only to find herself facing a much more daunting problem. Her mother, Biddy, who used to be such an energetic woman, is now in the grip of a terrible disease that destroys the mind and that will eventually leave just an outer shell of her. The entire family is affected: her father Walter, who is courageously taking care of his wife, and her brothers Henrik and Patrick.

With admirable sensitivity to the graveness of Alzheimer’s and to its ravages on the family, Christoph Fischer tells a deeply moving story. It is a complex yarn to weave, because it is underpinned by profound, hard questions. How would each one of them deal with this new, painful reality? Would they deny it or accept it? Would the progress of the disease strain them to the point of bringing about their own decline? Given their different approaches to treating Biddy, how do they negotiate a common strategy? Along the way, will the familial bond be weakened or strengthened? How do they deal with each tumble down, every time Biddy loses ground to the disease? Having put in place a rigid frame of rules, meant to brace her from further deterioration, how will they react when her mind continues to crumble? Can they hope to control her destiny? How do they let go, when it is time to do so?

Trying to find herself ensconced in the warmth of Home as she remembers it, the new reality become a test of maturity for Hanna. Will she find the inner strength needed to withstand it? In the words of her brother, Henrik, “Can you really see her as the Samaritan who gives up her career to clothe the poor and nurse the wounded, for the rest of her life? She is in shock right now and she is making a hurried, rash and stupid long term decision she will never be able to reverse.”

Finally, a few words about the cover design, which I love. Here is swan just starting to rise from the water and spread its wings, its feathers delineated diagonally across the cover. It is a dynamic, elegant icon, a symbol of the aspiration we all have to rise into purity, into our better selves. With its subtle shades of white, the design has some of the feel of The Three Nation Trilogy (the author’s historical fiction series.) However, with the cool greenish hues which infuses the entire image and the title font, this image extends in a different direction, a more contemporary one. And so does this book.

Five stars. ( )

Although Alzheimer’s disease plays a major role in this wonderful novel, this is not a book about Alzheimer’s disease. Sometimes it takes a crisis to reunite a family and when air stewardess Hanna suffers a traumatic experience at work, this is exactly what happens, although not for the reasons she had initially anticipated. As one of Hanna's brothers explains, people react differently to stress and trauma in their lives and how each of the characters in this story react to the stresses in their lives and how they impact others in their social circle is precisely what's going on here. As a response to her stressful situation, Hanna reacts by retreating to what she thinks is a family that will comfort and support her in the rural countryside. However, her father Walter is dealing with the stress of his wife's mental retreat from him and the world into a seemingly no-man's land of confusion and forgetfulness, characteristic of Alzheimer's. Interestingly, whereas his wife is bereft of memories from the past, Walter immerses himself more fully into his as he chronicles his family history as if fearing that if events from his past are not recorded, they may be lost for good, almost as if they had never happened to begin with. As they are pulled back into a family dynamic, Hanna's brothers must also face the stressful memories of their past, both actual and imagined and are each given perhaps a final opportunity for family reconciliation, secrets to be finally revealed, etc., which they both respond to differently and tellingly for their very disparate personalities. A very interesting scene recounts a situation where under hypnosis, a war veteran patient suffering memory loss was able to remember events prior to the trauma that in his normal consciousness, he had no recollection. This suggests that the mind, in the role of shielding us from painful memories may be also preventing the recall of the happy memories, as well. Luckily for Hanna, however, this is not her plight and she faces her traumatic past and her stressful present/future with courage and fortitude, allowing for all possibilities both wished for and feared. In so doing, the universe opens doors before her where she herself could only see brick walls. ( )