The story is about 80-year old Rose who has dementia and a resident of a nursing home. She loses her friend to a freak accident, causing Rose to be aware of a cunning plot- or does she?

This book has a clever whodunit plot. Rose flips through words before landing on the correct one. Her children are involved in her life.

I will say the novel is a bit repetitive, and confusing at times. With that being said, I did enjoy it.

Overall a good book touching on a hard subject . Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher fir letting for letting me review book

I enjoyed the word play by 80-year-old Rose, a nursing home resident with dementia, whose love of nature, plants, and trees comes through when she remembers the botanical names of each flower and plant she cherishes in her memory. Though in her 80s and a widow, she still has enough determination to ferret out the center's secrets and the crimes she thinks she sees being done to employees, her friends in the home, and other residents.

Rose lives half of her time in a remembered garden with her second husband, now deceased. It spurs her on to also take note of the present and her circumstances. And in a very roundabout way, she achieves her goals.

The story was clever, cute, and even suspenseful, with an ending that brings relief and a sense of completion. Her use of malapropisms, misuse of words that sound alike, was also entertaining.

Rose is a feisty octogenarian who has lost her ability to remember consistently. Her memory comes in and out of focus—but mostly out. She searches for the right words in circuitous flip-throughs of malapropisms and puns before landing on the correct word. Her adult children have put her in a memory care facility and visit her every day, giving her a journal to record events. On her dresser are photos from her and her children’s lives. If only she knew who the strange man in the front photo was.

When she loses her friend in a freak accident, Rose becomes aware of an insidious plot—or is it just her imagination? Through disjointed details, snippets of clarity and hallucinations, she learns that those who are supposed to have her best interest at heart may in fact be putting her in danger.

Told through Rose’s memory limitations and perceptions, the storyline can be challenging to follow at times. But if we stay with her, Rose eventually makes sense of the kaleidoscope of clues.

I liked the creativity and wry humor in this story. While sometimes maddening, Rose’s failing memory also allows us to see her world and her heartbreaks with empathetic eyes. And while I found the ending chapters a little overwritten and drawn out, I appreciated the clarity of the resolution

The story was okay. I was drawn to the story when it mentioned the main character had dementia, but reading the story, I felt the wording was a bit repetitive and annoying to follow along. I liked that her children were an active role in her life , but the story seemed a bit bland to me

This book is a great concept, however, just as in life being around a person suffering from dementia can be draining. Since our narrator is the patient this ends up feeling monotonous. If you have had a loved one with dementia you well know it is very difficult to be around for long stretches. This type of unreliable narrator that ends up solving a crime, just feels unrealistic. A little less of the self correction when she is thinking would have been helpful. With all that said I did like the cozy murder mystery vibe of the book.

As the reader, you are privy to the jumbled thoughts and life of a woman with dementia living in an Australian care facility. Despite her cognitive challenges, and with the love and concern of her attentive children, she manages to reveal the dark truth about the financial dealings going on around her. A unique voice and a fascinating, though very sad, short novel.

This story revolves around a care facility for elderly patients, a woman who is a patient with dementia, and how her adult children and grandchildren interact with her. In part, it is also a love story, as well as a glimpse into how dementia changes how these patients view their new world, and how it affects the other members of the family.

Many thanks for the opportunity to read this story of family, aging, and love.


Pub Date: July 1 2025

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Atria Books

thank you so much to the publishers and authors for the arc. I absolutely loved this book and enjoyed the word play a lot. As a psychology student who has always loved to attend seminars about dementia and Alzheimer's, this book was the perfect book for me!!

This book was a mixed bag for me. I enjoyed the humor and wordplay, but it became a little repetitious for me. I also found the revelation of the crime at the end confusing. I thought the author did a great job showing the interplay between the mother with dementia in a nursing home and her adult children. How her children and grandchildren chose to spend their time visiting with their mother was fascinating. I also enjoyed the mother's surprising understanding of her children and their behaviors and her insights and observations of other residents and the staff. In many ways, this book demonstrated love and acceptance in challenging circumstances. Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

I didn’t finish the book, it’s just too raw for me as someone who lost their grandmother recently. However from what I read and the inner dialogue, I know this book would absolutely wreck me. It’s just too tender of a spot right now. But I absolutely will be back to read it in the future.

I loved this book so much because I used to work in nursing homes and I could relate to this book on another level. I didn’t want this book to end.


I received a copy of this book for my honest opinion from Netgalley

☆ .7
This was definitely a novel. Was it good ? Maybe I just didn’t get it but for me it wasn’t, it did have its moment where I felt slightly less bored but overall I don’t think it was for me.

I absolutely get that the author wanted us to feel and see what was going on through Rose’s head with her alzheimer’s but one can only read so much repetition of the same subjects and same sentences before one get’s bored. Rose’s itself has a character is good, she has a unique personality and is actually funny by moment if we forget the repetitiveness of everything.

The plot of the novel felt incredibly small, I felt like I read a whole bunch of nothing and I was actually relieved when it was over. There’s absolutely nothing going on whatsoever and every character except for our main one feels like the same one repeating because they all feel flat and one dimensional, which for a book this short makes reading it incredibly painful.

I wish I liked this. Thank you Netgalley, Atria Books and Simon&Schuster for the arc, I’m, as always, very greatful. Review will be posted closer to publication day.

All The Words We Know, by Bruce Nash, is a cute story of an elderly patient's life and her view of life in a nursing home. Her dementia is evident in her thought process and it is fun to see words that she misuses and the choices she goes through to get to the right word. It is a slow-paced novel, as I guess life is in these homes.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the ARC ebook I read and reviewed. All opinions are my own.

The publishing industry abhors originality these days, sticking instead to the safe and familiar tropes. One of those is quaint books about old people. Another one are amateur sleuths with some sort of cognitive impediment.
Accordingly, the protagonist of this novel is an old woman who begins to suspect that something might be going wrong in the care facility. Don't expect a Miss Marple sort of sleuthing though, for this lady has Alzheimer and therefore only a rather precarious grasp of all the words she knows.
Thus, she is limited in expressing her suspicions, which creates the entire driving force behind this novel.
It's an intriguing concept, but this is less of an odd detective novel and more of an old person journey, complete with trips down memory lane and navigating the changing modern world (insert a strategically placed trans person of color here to make a point).
It is difficult for people with intact memory to know what it must be like for someone who is losing theirs. The author did a pretty good job of imaging that, down to some clever world play. Interestingly, his protagonist remains remarkably upbeat through it all, wither because she's just that Australian or because it's just that kind of a novel.
The book is too feel-good by design for a lot of poignancy but has a main character likable enough to override that at time. It is a very quick, easily marketable and digestible read, so if you're into that sort of thing, go for it. Thanks Netgalley.

This was a funny book in the vein of Fredrik Backman and the Thursday Murder Club. Rose is a wonderful character and her story is very heartfelt. Don't think about this one too deep- just enjoy it.

This is a story about Rose, an octogenarian and her day-to-day musings of her life in an elderly care home. The reader meets Rose on the day that her friend is found dead in the care-home parking lot, appearing to have jumped from her bedroom window. Rose then decides to embark on a voyage to discover her friend’s murderer. Did I mention that Rose suffers from dementia? So her life musings and subsequent investigation into her friend’s untimely death are often filled with Confucius…or is it confusion? And funnings…er fumblings….that confuse her even more.

Author, Bruce Nash, takes the reader on a journey of word-play and captures the mind of a protagonist that no longer possesses the ability to move smoothly from thought to thought; its peppered with bits of humor and clever word-play. Sounds unique, novel, clever, witty, and just plain fun, doesn’t it? Often it is compared to the brilliance of Fredrik Backman’s characters and plots as well as Richard Osman’s, Thursday Murder Club series. But it’s not…far from it, in fact.

The book starts strong, and I found myself chuckling at Rose’s expressions and word play, but this soon felt very stale and tiresome…and much too kitschy, lacking a plot as well as sound character development…

But perhaps this is what Nash was attempting? She is an octogenarian with rather advanced dementia, after all.

Since this was an ARC when I read it, I stayed with it to the bitter end, but if this was one I chose to read for pleasure, I would have abandoned it about a quarter of the way through. Her musings to which I found myself initially chuckling, soon became tiresome and oppressive.

Thank you to Atria Books via Netgalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love and feel for 80 year old Rose, a dementia patient living in memory care. She jumbles her words, which Bruce Nash handles expertly and some days are better than others but she knows that something is amiss when her scrabble buddy falls from a window and she stops at nothing to figure it out. I loved it...and her.

Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy. It is my pleasure to write an honest review.

This poignant, profound, and hilarious book highly entertained me. I can understand that it will not appeal to all readers. It is narrated from the rambling perspective of an elderly woman living in a senior care home. She has mobility issues and must use a walker. She calls herself Rose but rarely remembers her actual name. Rose is a most unreliable narrator, as her story contains many repetitions, forgotten or confused words, and failure to remember recent and past events.

She lives in a good senior residence but does not participate in the activities which are unknown or forgotten. I was thoroughly engaged in her story as we are of the same age and with mobility problems. If I share her loss of words and memory issues, I don't remember. The people in her residence have single rooms, whereas my residence consists of one and two-bedroom apartments. Rose immensely enjoyed her room. Her window overlooked trees and a park where other residents could only view the car park from their windows. She was forced to move to a less desirable room when someone who could pay more was given her room.

She has frequent visits from her son, who works in finance and whom she adores. They share her account, but she cannot access it. She keeps forgetting her password but won't admit it. Her daughter spends her visits cleaning the bathtub, watering her plants, and praying. The two teenage granddaughters spend their time on their phones.

Rose misses her best friend, who was in a wheelchair. They loved to play Scrabble, and both took pride in cheating. This friend was found dead after falling through her window onto the pavement below. She saw the dead body on the ground but forgets she is dead. There is now an unresponsive man in her friend's room, but attempts to get him to play Scrabble are useless. Among the main characters in charge of the residence are the Care Manager (doctor), whom she calls the 'Scare Manager,' and the Angry Nurse. She loves the 'Nice Boy Who Mops the Floors' and tries to befriend him. He is transgendered, has Aspergers, and has Dyslexia. He transitioned from female to male, and there are no bathrooms that he is allowed to use. When Rose tries to speak with him, he only utters vulgar swear words, but she may have misheard and misinterpreted his remarks. As he seems to be changing back to female, he starts to use Rose's bathroom, which gladdens her.

Another resident Rose likes is 'The Man Who Doesn't Live Here.' He insists he has a comfortable home and a fine car. The man becomes quite troubled as he suspects funds are being stolen from his account. Rose suspects the same thing but forgets her password and cannot check. Her son may be having financial trouble and be embezzling her money. This does not bother her as much as the doctor (Scare Manager) shows signs of increasing prosperity while people are moved to less desirable rooms. Her dead friend told her that money was being laundered in the basement. She also mentioned vampires were carrying out rituals there. What to believe?

Although Rose doesn't know all the recreation available in the building, she is fascinated by the fire stairway next to the elevator, used when the elevator is out of commission. She believes a fire is burning at the bottom of the steep stairs and fears she will fall or be pushed into the fire. She also thinks the Angry Nurse intends to smother her when bringing her new pillows.

She remembers her first marriage and how she deserted her two children for another man and his love. She must beg their forgiveness. The 'Nice Boy' helps them access the internet, and they learn of fraud, embezzlement, and mistreatment, and worse when residents are having difficulty paying. Could it have led to the murder of her friend? One day, Rose demands that her family gather to discuss her account. They are excited to see the parking lot filled with police cars and someone being led away by police. Will their situation improve?
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this entertaining and thought-provoking book by Bruce Nash.. Its publication is due July 01, 2025

I was able to read All the Words We Know by Bruce Nash in one sitting. It was a fun and quick read.

The story is a poignant and engaging tale that brilliantly combines humor and heartache. The story centers around Rose, an octogenarian navigating the murky waters of dementia, who proves that age is just a number when it comes to uncovering the truth. The author's portrayal of Rose is well done; I feel she is a character that will resonate with readers. Her moments of sharpness amid forgetfulness provide both comedic relief and insightful reflections on life, memory, and the relationships that shape us.

The narrative is filled with interesting descriptions of the assisted living facility, providing a glimpse into the lives of its eclectic residents and staff, each with their own stories and secrets. The central mystery of Rose’s investigation into her friend's death adds an interesting layer to the narrative. As she uncovers hidden truths, the plot mixes themes of friendship, loss, and the lies we tell ourselves and others. The story is a good reminder of the resilience of the human spirit.

All the Words We Know will resonate with anyone who has grappled with the bittersweet nature of aging and memory. In conclusion, the story is a good narrative filled with warmth, humor, and a touch of mystery. This novel is definitely a must-read for those who enjoy stories that tug at the heartstrings while showcasing the strength of an unforgettable protagonist.

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