Description

‘Moving and unexpected. It lingers in the mind’ Guardian
‘An extraordinary book’ Daily Mail
‘Brilliant and unforgettable’ Karen Russell
‘A tantalising and satisfying mystery’ Claire Fuller
‘Mind-bending and soul-altering’ Jessamine Chan
‘Mesmerising’ Publisher’s Weekly
‘An exhilarating and riveting must-read’ Kirkus Starred Review
‘Heart-expanding . . . inquisitive, brilliantly-crafted’ Florence Knapp

WHAT IF YOU COULD REMEMBER EVERYTHING, EXCEPT THE DAY YOU DISAPPEARED?

A young woman, Jane O., arrives in a psychiatrist’s office. She’s been suffering a series of worrying episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations and an inexplicable sense of dread. But as the psychiatrist struggles to solve the mystery of what is happening in Jane’s mind, she suddenly goes missing. When she is found a day later, unconscious in a park, she has no memory of what has happened to her.

Are Jane’s strange experiences related to the overwhelm of single motherhood, or long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago, who warns her of disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms will lead her psychiatrist to question everything he once thought he knew . . .

Profound and beautifully written, THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. is a speculative mystery about memory, identity and fate, a mesmerising story about the bonds of love between a mother and child, a man and a woman, and the haunting, unexplained mysteries of the human mind.

Publisher Review

Brilliant and unforgettable … at once a metaphysical thriller, a psychological mystery, and a profound love story. * Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Swamplandia! * A tantalising and satisfying mystery. * Claire Fuller * Asks thrilling and vital questions about perception, memory, consciousness, and the limits of our known world … The Strange Case of Jane O. is both mind-bending and soul-altering. * Jessamine Chan, NYT Bestselling author of The School for Good Mothers * Heart-expanding . . . inquisitive, brilliantly-crafted. If you enjoyed Kazuo Ishaguro’s Never Let Me Go, Stephen Gosz’s non-fiction The Examined Life, or The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks, then I think you’ll love this novel. * Florence Knapp, author of THE NAMES * A captivating, deeply psychological novel with restrained yet potent characterisations that jump off the page. I couldn’t put it down. * Lisa Ballantyne, author of The Guilty One * A novel that begins quietly becomes an exhilarating and riveting must-read and then read-again. * Kirkus starred review * The mesmerizing latest from Walker (The Age of Miracles) is a fantastical tale of a mother’s mysterious visions and memory lapses . . . As [the] tone becomes more confessional, the narrative opens up an alluring vision of how personal history and memory intertwine. This one is tough to shake. * Starred Review, Publisher’s Weekly * Stunning. I know I’m going to think about this book for the rest of my life. * Deborah O’ Connor * An astonishing novel-a mind-blowing blend of page-turning mystery and deep philosophical inquiry into the nature of memory and reality itself. Karen Thompson Walker has created an unputdownable book with a haunting twist ending I’ll be thinking about for a long time. * Angie Kim, New York Times bestselling author of Happiness Falls and Miracle Creek * I absolutely loved this astonishing novel. It’s so beautifully written, with a central puzzle – elegantly narrated, and deeply, deeply unnerving . . . It’s a subtle, eerie and profoundly moving story, truly haunting, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. * Amanda Mason, author of The Wayward Girls *