The Memory of Water

"The Memory of Water" by Shelagh Stevenson tells the story of three sisters who meet up before their mother’s funeral in the house in which they grew up. Teresa the eldest, and usually the most responsible, harbours resentment that she was the only one around for their Alzheimer’s afflicted mother in her final days, Mary the golden child is a doctor and somewhat snobbish about her working class mother and Catherine is the classic youngest child – self centred and hedonistic.

Through the three siblings, their relationship with their men and the ghostly presence of their mother, Stephenson explores the unreliable nature of memory whether it be the sisters’ laying claim to different remembered versions of how a past event played out or their mother’s Alzheimer’s making her mind feel like it was ‘full of holes.’

The title comes from homoeopathy’s central premise that even diluted hundreds of times, an active ingredient in water is still retained in the water’s “memory”.