She had me at the opening paragraph.

‘The loss of my mother is like missing a tooth: an absence I can feel at all times, but one I can hide as long I keep my mouth shut. And, so I rarely talk about her.’

Helen Fisher’s Space Hopper resonated with me.

The book is about Faye, who is happily married to Eddie, with two young daughters. She is a researcher at the RNIB or the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and is good friends with Louis, who is blind. She also has two besties. For all intents and purposes, she is content with her life. But for one huge ache, the loss of her mum, Jeanie, when she was eight. Faye remembers being brought up by an elderly couple, Em and Henry. But not much else. No real memories of her mum. Or even a clear visual of how she looked. She also didn’t/doesn’t know how her mum passed. And, Em and Henry, kind and caring as they were, seemed reluctant/reticent to discuss it.

Until, she unintentionally time travels to the 1970’s. In a space hopper box. What? For the uninitiated, a space hopper is a large rubber ball with handles. You sit on it, hold the handles, and hop along without falling off. It’s also known as hoppity hop or bouncy ball. I’ve hopped on this bouncy ball in my long-ago youth. 

Anyways, Faye discovers a photograph of herself as a young six-year-old child sitting in a space hopper cardboard box in front of a Christmas tree. The back of the photo reads, ‘Faye, Christmas 1977.’ And, it was taken by her mum, who wasn’t in the composition. Time travel happens when Faye steps into the carboard box, and is perilously transported to her past life. A precious past where she meets her mum and learns surprising things about her from the lens of the now, adult Faye. A past that also includes child Faye – living and playing in her childhood home, and going to school with her mum. A past that ‘works’ in a different timeline that’s sort of parallel to the present where adult Faye, her family and friends live.

This is not a review by any means. Just what I like about the book.

It is refreshingly different. An old, blast from-the-past cardboard box. A hazardous journey. The effects and/or possible repercussions on people and events in the past and future. I like the time travel aspect of the story, which is not the main theme, I don’t think. Why? Because it helps adult Faye to fill the gaping void – the loss, the grief of loss, the love of her mum, and her love for her mum.

Do I believe in time travel? Hmm. I want to in this instance. The idea didn’t escape me. Because I too want to travel back to May 19, 2024 and be present with my mum the day she passed. I too would like to tell her one more time or many, many more times how much I love her. I know I’ve told her enough times before but I still would like, want that one more chance, that one more day that I can/could have with her.

I like that time travel is used to cleverly interweave and broach subjects like belief and faith, relationships, and loss and grief. It isn’t just about believing Faye or believing that she believed that she had time travelled or in time travel per say. It is about having faith in things that we cannot see or haven’t experienced ourselves. For instance, the believe/faith in God. The story also focuses on Eddie, Faye’s husband, who worked in finance, has a calling, then trains to be a vicar. I believe in God. A faith that my parents instilled in me as a child. My faith wavers, questions, and doubts, but it somehow finds its way back to God. Blind faith? No better alternative? I don’t know.

I like that time travel allows Faye to ‘discover’ her mum. The relationship that ensues between Faye and Jeanie is a masterful twist. Is it a mum-daughter relationship? It isn’t and it is. It isn’t because Jeanie doesn’t know adult Faye is her daughter from the future. Despite the immediate kinship, bond and trust between the two adults. Jeanie even regards Faye as a ‘guardian angel.’ It is between Jeanie and child Faye. Wonderfully, it enables adult Faye to visualise the child she was with her mum, and collect the memories she didn’t have previously.

I like that I was invited, from the very beginning, to join Faye’s time-travel experience, and question/consider her decisions to tell or not to tell, and her actions as the story unfolds.

I like that the book is so beautifully well written.

I dogeared many pages, my measure of a really good read.