What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg

The provided text offers excerpts from the novel What We Keep by Elizabeth Berg, beginning with several positive critical reviews highlighting the book's emotional depth, vivid descriptions, and insightful handling of childhood and complex relationships. The core of the text is a first-person narrative told by Ginny, which interweaves childhood memories from the pivotal summer of the enigmatic new neighbor, Jasmine Johnson, and the present-day reality of Ginny's relationship with her estranged mother and sister, Sharla. The story progresses with Ginny and Sharla traveling to see their mother, who left them thirty-five years prior, revealing the unresolved trauma of the separation and the mother’s later-life illness as the catalyst for the reunion, providing retrospective insight into the mother’s earlier struggles with identity and mental health.