When I ForgotWhen I Forgot
Title rated 2.5 out of 5 stars, based on 3 ratings(3 ratings)
Book, 2009
Current format, Book, 2009, 1st U.S. ed, Available .Book, 2009
Current format, Book, 2009, 1st U.S. ed, Available . Offered in 0 more formatsA Finlandia Prize-winning work finds Anna en route to visit her institutionalized brother and experiencing a moment of recollection so arresting that it shatters her world, a repressed memory of horrific psychological relevance that forces her to reevaluate her understanding of hope and survival in the face of grim modern-world prospects. Original. A first novel.
An astonishingly assured and compelling debut, When I Forgot explores the relationship between a sister and her brother, the past that they share, and the painful memories that shape their lives forever.Anna is on her way to the hospital where her brother has been institutionalized when she falters, and in that pause her world splinters in a blazing display of memory and madness, of childhood security treasured and shattered, and of families blighted by psychological trauma—her brother's and that of her boyfriend's father, a Vietnam vet. September 11 serves as a backdrop for the story, and the Finnish perspective on America and its politics is as uncomfortable as it is compelling. In Elina Hirvonen's skillful hands, the grimness is illuminated by firecracker insight and surprising beauty. And, above all, there is hope.
When I Forgot is an astonishingly assured and compelling debut novel about the love siblings have for each other, the past they share, and the painful memories that shape their lives forever.
An astonishingly assured and compelling debut, When I Forgot explores the relationship between a sister and her brother, the past that they share, and the painful memories that shape their lives forever.Anna is on her way to the hospital where her brother has been institutionalized when she falters, and in that pause her world splinters in a blazing display of memory and madness, of childhood security treasured and shattered, and of families blighted by psychological trauma—her brother's and that of her boyfriend's father, a Vietnam vet. September 11 serves as a backdrop for the story, and the Finnish perspective on America and its politics is as uncomfortable as it is compelling. In Elina Hirvonen's skillful hands, the grimness is illuminated by firecracker insight and surprising beauty. And, above all, there is hope.
When I Forgot is an astonishingly assured and compelling debut novel about the love siblings have for each other, the past they share, and the painful memories that shape their lives forever.
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- Portland, OR : Tin House Books ; Berkeley, CA : Distributed to the trade by Publishers Group West, 2009.
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