In this notable departure for great science-fiction writer Brian Aldiss, this elegiac examination of family life explores 50 years marked by cross purposes and strained efforts at communication. When Clement Winter's brother dies, he inherits the much-admired yet distant sibling's papers, which turn out to contain poignant accounts of wartime in Sumatra and a series of passionate affairs abandoned and afterwards longed for. Struggling to adjust to the death of his daughter and to the infidelity and fame of his wife - a bestselling fantasy writer- Clement confronts the revelation of his brother's fears and aspirations. As he tries to assimilate and understand his dead brother's life, unexpected upheavals remind Clement how little he understands his own. FORGOTTEN LIFE encompasses comedy and tragedy, joy and grief, as its three main characters try to work out the meaning of their own lives.