Dr. Henry Byrd, a psychiatrist with a troubled past, gets a new patient, Jane O. She stays about 14 minutes of her hour, and won't tell him why she is there. A few weeks later, he is requested to see her at the psychiatric wing of Bellevue, as she has put him in as her contact. She has lost track of three days in her life and ended up in a park in Brooklyn. She finally tells him why she originally consulted him-she has seen her high school friend Nico, but grown-up and wearing scrubs, as she walks to her librarian job at New York Public. But that can't be-Nico committed suicide years ago in college...obviously a hallucination. But why did she see him and carry on a conversation, and why did she abandon her baby for three days and disappear? It is especially puzzling since Jane O has the most rare memory, hyperthymesia, which allows her to remember nearly every event in her life with perfect precision. Unfortunately, she has also caught the attention of a police detective who wants Dr. Byrd to reveal Jane O's confidential information-did she experience a dissociative fugue or did she fake it to cover up a crime?
This is a very surprising and unique novel that explores the idea of alternate and parallel realities, but not in a science fiction way. Getting her inspiration from the writings of Oliver Sacks, Walker spins a tale of things that can't be true, but are anyway in this patient's world. Grief, friendship, and tentative trust are also themes in the novel, which is beautifully written and logical in its own universe. Anyone who is interested in the workings of the mind will relish this book and root for the doctor and his patient to find her truth.
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