The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife: A Novel

In the past, Hannah eagerly waits for her father to return home so that she can give him a birdhouse she has made for him. However, he brushes her aside when he returns. Hannah persists, but he tears the birdhouse from her hands and breaks it.

Late that night, Hannah hears a crash: Her father has broken Sadie’s favorite cup.

Denise is at the computer when Kevin enters and noticing a splinter in her hand, removes it. Denise tells him she is fine and privately wishes it were true.

Fred has learned how to pretend to take Bernard’s heart medication and then throw the pills out the window. However, when Denise enters to give him a suppository, he has no choice but to comply.

Later, as he retrieves a cup that he knocked under the bed, Fred discovers a shoe box containing an unopened letter from Bernard to his daughter.

Fred looks through several photos of Bernard that are also in the shoebox; it is clear he resembles Bernard. He worries that Bernard’s daughter could expose him, though the returned letter suggests she wants nothing to do with Bernard.

At lunch, Fred sits with Valerie and Albert and marvels at Albert’s love for his wife even amid his confusion.

One day Fred is able to trick Albert into eating and taking his pills after Albert refuses to do so for his wife. Valerie praises Fred’s kind manner, and Fred thinks back to his mother’s diagnosis with dementia and subsequent illness. When Valerie asks him about his family, Fred wishes he could talk about his late wife, Dawn. He thinks of Bernard and wonders what caused his estrangement from his daughter.

In the past, Hannah overhears her mother and Sadie talking. Sadie fears that she might die and asks her mother whether there is an afterlife. Hannah pretends to be asleep when her mother comes to check on her and then hears her mother crying outside her door. Then, her parents argue: Her father is angry about what their mother told Sadie about the afterlife. They also fight about their respective work schedules before Hannah’s father leaves.

While Fred is in the bathroom, he hears Denise discussing him with another nurse. Denise finds it odd that “Bernard” is no longer incontinent and that his memory and hearing seem to have improved.

The next morning, Denise enters Fred’s room to wake him after taking a sip from a vodka bottle. She is surprised to find that “Bernard” is wet; Fred has pretended to urinate on himself. Similarly, Fred fakes poor hearing and calls Denise by another name.

One day, Fred discovers a debit card in Bernard’s drawer with a pin number attached. After learning that Patricia is among the residents allowed to leave the nursing home, he steals her two-seater motorized scooter, hiding Albert in the back.

They head to a nearby store to buy a suit for Albert, who thinks, as he often does, that his wedding date is approaching. Fred is relieved when the pin for the debit card works.

Fred and Alfred return without any problems. After Alfred is safely returned to his room and Fred to his, Valerie brings Fred a fish and chips lunch. He has just begun to enjoy it when Denise bursts in, shouting that “Bernard” is allergic to fish. She gives him a shot with an EpiPen, and a doctor examines him.

After the doctor leaves, Fred works a puzzle. When he goes in search of a pen, he discovers another unposted letter from Bernard to his daughter. Fred decides to read it.

Fred teaches Kevin some Vietnamese words while Kevin takes Fred’s blood pressure. Fred assures him that Linh will appreciate Kevin’s effort to learn Vietnamese.

Fred then prepares to head to the crossword puzzle club, but Denise brings a young woman to him, explaining that her name is Hannah and that she is his—i.e., Bernard’s—daughter.

The adult Hannah is now shown in the narrative present. Hannah confronts “Bernard” about leaving after her sister, Sadie, died. Fred debates telling Hannah who he really is, but before he can decide, Hannah collapses. Fred shouts for help. Kevin helps Hannah up, and she explains that she is newly pregnant.

Once her blood sugar has gone back up, Hannah resumes the conversation, telling Bernard that she hoped that he would apologize for abandoning her. Fred does and then gives Hannah Bernard’s unmailed letter.

Back at her home (and still in the narrative present), Hannah is angry. She recalls that just as Sadie’s 13th birthday arrived, she died, and their father failed to attend the funeral. Her anger mounts, and she throws Bernard’s letter in the trash. Unable to slow her rageful thoughts, Hannah begins writing them down. Then, it occurs to Hannah that when she met with Bernard that day, something was off: His eyes appeared kind for the first time ever.

While Fred and Albert are playing chess one day, Fred confesses to Albert that he is not Bernard, but Fred. Albert, because of his dementia, does not understand what Fred is confessing, still certain that Fred is his brother. However, as Fred recounts the story of Bernard’s body falling into the river, Denise overhears. She chalks the conversation up to dementia and to Fred enjoying pretending to be Albert’s brother.

She thinks about her own life and the stress of her marital problems with Greg as well as the struggles to raise two young daughters. Now that one of them has recently been diagnosed with anxiety and a sensory processing disorder, Denise has an explanation for the daughter’s tantrums, but this has not made them any easier to manage.

Fred is awoken one morning by Albert, who thinks it is his wedding day. Fred gets an idea and asks Linh and Kevin to help: He arranges for a “wedding” to take place at happy hour. When Valerie arrives for her visit, she is delighted by what Fred has planned. Albert, too, is delighted throughout the wedding, especially by the best man’s speech that Fred gives.

As Fred speaks, Hannah enters, determined to tell “Bernard” the angry thoughts she withheld from him the other day. She sits down, but as she listens to Fred’s speech, she cannot believe that he is her father. She decides to leave and never return.

The post “wedding” party continues, and Fred is happy to see Kevin ask Linh to dance.