The deeply moving novel Conversations With My Mother: A Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast by Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert has been honored with the acclaimed Literary Titan Gold Book Award, recognizing its exceptional storytelling, emotional resonance, and literary merit. This award celebrates works that expertly balance craft, clarity, and powerful thematic exploration, and Gilbert’s novel has distinguished itself as an unforgettable contemporary literary fiction novel.

Set against the enduring beauty of the Maine coastline, Conversations With My Mother follows an elderly, good-hearted Francophone woman as she struggles with dementia while her small town faces the pressures of real-estate development. Told through an intimate first-person present narrative, the story centers on the relationship between the mother and her two adult children: Diane, the acerbic daughter who serves as her daily caregiver, and Rob, the peripatetic son who witnesses her decline from afar. As the siblings confront their mother’s deepening illness and the difficult decision to sell the family property to fund her care, the novel illuminates the delicate balance between loss and hope.

In a recent interview, the author spoke candidly about the inspiration behind the novel’s episodic structure. He described how witnessing his mother’s fluctuating moments of clarity, candor, anxiety, and imaginative leaps shaped the book’s reflective, day-in-the-life style. “From her initial diagnosis through her passing, I periodically witnessed both firsthand and at a remove her growing disorientation and anxiety as well as her increasing bursts of candor and flights of fancy,” Gilbert shared. “It was this on-again, off-again exposure to the effects of her condition that led to the episodic construction of the book.”

The Literary Titan review praised the novel for its quiet power, vivid sense of place, and emotional authenticity. The reviewer wrote that the book “felt like sitting in a quiet room, listening to two people who love each other deeply but know time is running out,” noting that Gilbert honors dementia with honesty rather than dramatization. The review celebrated the novel’s understated poetry, its flashes of humor, and its ability to elevate everyday moments into something sacred.

Conversations With My Mother: A Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast is available now. Readers can purchase the award-winning novel on Amazon and Barnes & Noble in both print and digital formats. Experience a story that lingers long after the final page.

About the Author

Ronald-Stéphane Gilbert was born and raised in Maine and is of Québécois descent. He is a retired global marketing communications executive who now writes full-time. A member of the Authors Guild and the Academy of American Poets, Gilbert has earned finalist recognition in prominent competitions such as the Hawthorne Prize, the International Book Awards, and the Indie Excellence Awards. His mother’s journey through dementia and Alzheimer’s deeply shaped his creative path, inspiring Conversations With My Mother: A Novel of Dementia on the Maine Coast, and leading him to participate in the Cleveland Clinic Brain and MIND studies. Gilbert resides in northeast Ohio with his wife, Leah, and their elderly Pekingese, Reggie. His next book, a family saga exploring French Canadian immigrant life from the early 1900s through the late twentieth century, is slated for publication in 2027.

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