Introduction:
In her debut novel Table 31, Sondra Roberts-Stott delivers a hauntingly lyrical and emotionally immersive story about truth, memory, and reconciliation. Told through the eyes of Anthea, a 99-year-old woman determined to finish her memoirs before her 100th birthday, the novel invites readers into a world shaped by conversation, emotion, and the long shadow of one mysterious table.

• Anthea’s Mission: Write Before 100

Set in a quiet lakeside cabin near Lake Windermere, Anthea sits with a Schaeffer pen and a blank page, determined to uncover the hidden meanings of her life before time runs out. But she’s not just remembering facts—she’s decoding emotions, revisiting her deepest relationships, and reexamining the stories shared at Café B, a humble coffeehouse on Baker Street.

At the heart of this café stood Table 31—a vessel of memory that captured every conversation between Anthea and her twenty-six closest friends. When the café burned down, the table was lost, but the emotions embedded in its grain survived—and so did a mysterious brown suitcase found in the rubble.

• A to Z: The Alphabet of Experience

Each chapter of Table 31 corresponds to a letter of the alphabet and a person whose name begins with that letter. From anxiety to healing, love to jealousy, each friend’s story reflects a piece of Anthea’s inner world. These characters are not purely fictional—they are reimagined versions of real people Sondra encountered during her life.

The structure is deliberate: just as the alphabet organizes language, this structure organizes Anthea’s emotional processing. Behind each name is a life lesson, a memory, a loss, or a revelation.

•   Symbols: The Table, The Suitcase, The Ping Pong Balls

The novel is rich with symbolic imagery. Table 31 becomes a symbol of emotional permanence—suggesting that the spaces we inhabit absorb our stories. The brown suitcase, unearthed after the café’s destruction, contains forgotten truths and metaphors. Within it, imaginary colored ping pong balls represent the chaotic emotional responses inside Anthea’s mind—confusion, grief, pride, happiness—each bouncing for attention.

These images not only enhance the storytelling but create a visual language for emotion that readers can deeply connect with.

• Closing:
  Table 31 is an ode to reflection and the power of writing to make sense of life. It’s part memoir, part fiction, and part therapy—wrapped in narrative grace. With each page, readers sit beside Anthea at that quiet café table, listening to the voices of love, loss, and truth. Ultimately, Table 31 asks: What would your table say if it could talk? What truths live inside your suitcase?