“What is life without a memory? Is it death? Sometimes memory was death – slow and painful, eating away at your insides, reeking of decay. Losing your memory would save you from that; wipe your slate clean. But the good would be swept aside with the bad. All the fine things to build a life on would be lost, leaving you just one thing – that moment. No dreams and no history. The ultimate expression of living in the now.” p. 147 -148

Not since Evelyn Waugh’s ‘The Loved One’ have I read a book set in a funeral parlour. They’re rare; books for teenagers with that setting even more so. Just as rare is such a gem of a book about boys coping with feelings of grief, loss and abuse.

We are introduced to the funeral parlour setting in the very first line of this novel, however it takes some time for the main character, Aaron, to allow his story to unfold.  Aaron begins his job as an apprentice undertaker and one by one we meet the funeral parlour’s clients – those who have died and those who mourn them. But the reader develops a greater interest in the undertakers themselves and their families than in the bodies. There are many stories within this book, but Aaron is the character who intrigues us most. Why is he so guarded? Why does he sleep walk? What are his dreams about? Gradually we realise that even the book title is enigmatic and multi-layered: ‘The dead I know’. Through dealing with the dead, the lives of the living unfold, particularly the past histories of Aaron and his boss John Barton. Slowly, we learn about the dead we DON’T know.

Scot Gardner has woven a delicate and touching story of grief and loss. Though not for the faint-hearted, the incidents of violence in the story only serve to highlight the empathy and care of the well-drawn adult characters who enable Aaron to gain some acceptance of his terrible past.  Excellent read for mid-teenagers, particularly boys. Mrs O.