The Photograph by Penelope Lively

A couple of years ago The Guardian interviewed the English author Penelope Lively for the series "A Life in Books," in which she put forth one of the central themes of her books, memory: "What we have in our heads is a collection of frames. As to time itself - can it be linear when all these snatches of other presents exist at once in your mind?"

The library book group will discuss The Photograph by Penelope Lively on Friday at 10:30 a.m. The title refers to the photo found by Glyn, a landscape historian, of his deceased wife holding hands with another man. As the publisher's summary puts it, "Reading the past, uncovering and deciphering its strata, is his stock in trade, but now it is his own personal landscape, and the history of his marriage, that he must reinterpret."

Each chapter focuses on the different people affected by the discovery of the photograph and how their relationships with each other, and their understanding of Kath, are eventually changed by it. I couldn't put the book down, wanting to find out more about Kath and why she died.

Penguin has a short interview with the author specifically about The Photograph. The Photograph got a mixed review from the New York Times, which you can read here.