This review is from our monthly series of reviews by LIANZA members.

Maxine has been losing things lately, but it is someone else’s fault, and people are talking in her garden at night. People are in cahoots, hiding her things, and if only she could recall the whatchamacallit that she needs right now as it would help her solve the thing she really needs to sort out, if only she can recall what it is that needs to be done….

A House Built on Sand, Tina Shaw’s latest novel and the winner of the Text Prize for an Unpublished Novel 2023, is a beautifully written book that grabs your attention in the first chapter. The pages seem to turn themselves as the lives of Maxine and Rose are revealed one layer at a time. The words effortlessly usher you into the world of early onset dementia and the haunting path the mind will take at any given time. 

Rose’s own concerns, stresses taking a toll on her marriage, have to be pushed to the back of her mind but Shaw intertwines them seamlessly with the sad tale of her mother’s mind slipping away. Maxine reminds us repeatedly that she still has all her marbles, thank you very much, just one or two have been misplaced, like that important file from her job as a social worker. 

The title is very apt as Maxine’s chosen life begins to sink into the sands of time. She has secrets, and those secrets have secrets of their own. Unfortunately for all involved, those secrets are no longer housed in a strong foundation, the sands are shifting, and the worst secret possible is slowly revealed to the reader. You will think ‘no surely not’ in one chapter, and then more information comes to light, the tension ramps up and I turned the pages fast to find out if what Maxine’s mind is sharing is truthful because no one would really do that… would they?

Rose struggles with her mother, loving her but torn between her own problems and the time her mother needs. But Maxine lurches from problem to problem and next Rose knows, her mother is being held in the police station in Whakatāne when she and Rose both live in Auckland. 

What follows will bring you to tears, smiles and provoke fear. No-one ever knows if they are going to be the one who gets dementia. The family bach at Kutarere holds the key to everything that Maxine is desperate to find, fix and hide from her family but a shadow man follows her, haunts her dreams, and she must conquer him to uncover the reason she has come all this way. Rose must also find a way to push through her own fears and find the joy she is desperately seeking in her own life.

Tina Shaw has drawn from her own experience creating this novel, and the gentle way she shows that dementia can take anyone, at any age, is handled sensitively. Unfortunately it is the family who has to try and catch their loved one before they fall into catastrophe. 

This was not at all my normal read but I genuinely could not put this book down, making me more aware of the differing sides of dementia.

Reviewed by Rochelle Ganderton