Reviewed by Wendy Lipke
Zoe Copeland is a single mum who has had a very dysfunctional upbringing, in and out of foster homes because of her addict mother. She is trying desperately to ensure her own daughter, Florence, has a more stable upbringing. When her landlord wants to increase the rent on their one-bedroom flat she dreams of a house of their own. But it is financially out of her reach. This is when she first hears about treasure houses, and so she investigates if this might just give her what she craves.
In the United Kingdom a “treasure house” refers to a building, room, or secure location where valuables and riches are stored. According to Amy Matthew’s story, trending on Tik Tok is the option of buying old houses for a reasonable price because they come with the original owner’s belongings and rubbish. They require a lot of time and work to make them liveable. This is the treasure house in this story.
Amy Matthews also wrote a book I read some time ago called Someone Elses Bucket List. This novel I thoroughly enjoyed. Her latest book I found just as interesting and enjoyable. Several of the characters in this new story are closely related and an inherited disease afflicts some of their group, adding another dimension to the work.
This is the story about Zoe and her sassy daughter as they chase the dream of a stable home for themselves, but it is also the story of the treasure house itself and the people who stayed there. Originally it was a holiday home, and the reader learns about the family who once used it. This included another young girl, Marly, who was the last child in her family and often felt ignored. She was a similar age to Flo, Zoe’s daughter, and like her, could be quite outspoken. These girls add much humour to the storylines.
Told in the first person, the story has a very personal feel. After Zoe and Flo arrive in the area to view the house and decide to stay, the residents soon became involved in helping make the home habitable. By now, Zoe had been thoroughly informed that this house had been Marly’s house, and Zoe is curious as to how the place had become so filled with culch. Everyone had known Marly, which probably was not unusual as the permanent residents in this area were few. It did pique Zoe’s interest to find out more about the house and Marly.
Although this book was written in South Australia, where the author Amy Matthews works at Flinders University as an associate professor of creative writing, her story is set in Maine USA where many families have holiday homes in towns by the sea and families travel there yearly for extended stays.
The Treasure House story is a lovely tale about parenting as a single mum and highlights two interesting storylines. It provides an insight into life as a drug addict and how this impacts other family members. The story shows that experiences from the early time in a child’s life can bring lasting trauma but that there is help if only one is open to it. Words in the last paragraph in the story read – ‘Today is just an ordinary day. The kind that comes every day…But…ordinary days can change your life’ (361) and this sums up this narrative. The story also reminds the reader that so often in our everyday lives we are prone to jump to conclusions and assume the worst.
The book includes three pages of sketches showing the features of the treasure house and at the end of the story are book club questions making this an ideal book for any group sharing or individual reader.
The Treasure House
(2026)
by Amy Matthews
Simon & Schuster
ISBN:978 1 7616 3357 7
$34.99;382pp