The Amnesiac

Sam Taylor

Penguin Books,  June 2008

After breaking his leg on the stairs of his Amsterdam apartment, James Purdew finds himself stuck at home with too much time to think. While his relationship with his girlfriend Ingrid begins to disintegrate, James becomes obsessed with the three years of his own past that he cannot recall and he finds himself drawn back to England, and the town of H, where the events of those years took place. But the old, strangely familiar house where he comes to stay has some secrets of its own -- including the remnants of a nineteenth-century manuscript of a murder mystery that, incredibly, may offer important clues to his past.

Part detective story, part haunting gothic tale, The Amnesiac is a journey into memory and amnesia, fiction and reality, heaven and hell. A tightly woven masterpiece of dark storytelling, this engrossing tale marks the American debut of an exciting new voice in fiction.

paperback | ISBN: 9780143113409 | Publication Date: June 2008

Reviews:
"The Amnesiac is a captivating elusive novel, mind-bending and genre-bending in equal measure. It is at turns a murder mystery with no murder, a thriller sans car chases or rogue nukes, and sci-fi devoid of aliens or outrageous near-future scenarios. Taylor takes the seemingly disparate elements and combines them in a story sure to satisfy fans of all three genres. The Amnesiac will keep readers guessing -- and hoping -- until the very end."
--Ron Currie, Jr., author of God Is Dead

"Some things are better left forgotten. Fortunately, this book is not one of them."
--Sunday Express (London)

"Illusory and transfixing . . . a tender triumph."
--The Telegraph (London)