I'll Keep You Close

By Jeska Verstegen, Bill Nagelkerke (Translator)

A girl unravels her family's hidden past, revealing secrets and trauma.

3.7/5 Goodreads · 365 ratings

176 pages

$17.99Save 6%

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Bookroo's summary

Jeska's world is shrouded in mystery—curtains drawn, Mozart blaring, and a name whispered by her grandmother. With a photo album, encyclopedias, and a stray cat, she uncovers her family's buried secrets. As the silence breaks, Jeska learns of a terror her family survived, a past that is both distant and intimately connected to her. This journey through generational trauma explores how survivors carry their past while seeking new beginnings. What truths will Jeska uncover, and how will they shape her future?

From the publisher

Jeska doesn’t know why her mother keeps the curtains drawn so tightly every day. And what exactly is she trying to drown out when she floods the house with Mozart? What are they hiding from? When Jeska’s grandmother accidentally calls her by a stranger’s name, she seizes her first clue to uncovering her family’s past, and hopefully to all that’s gone unsaid. With the help of an old family photo album, her father’s encyclopedia collection, and the unquestioning friendship of a stray cat, the silence begins to melt into frightening clarity: Jeska’s family survived a terror that they’ve worked hard to keep secret all her life. And somehow, it has both nothing and everything to do with her, all at once. A true story of navigating generational trauma as a child, I’ll Keep You Close is about what comes after disaster: how survivors move forward, what they bring with them when they do, and the promise of beginning again while always keeping the past close.

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