The Memory Man - Softcover

'What gives this wonderfully sparse book its tension and grasp are the clashes between two movements - like two cymbals being brought together, the movement backwards of memory, and the movement forward of consequences. And so it speaks history, and one cannot stop listening' -- John Berger 'This novel delivers. The style is lean, evocative, and highly readable. The characters are sympathetic and believable. The plot is a delicate thread as strong as a fishing line and as capable of reeling in.' * Toronto Globe and Mail * 'Clever, unexpectedly funny and pegs along at a thrillerish pace' * Daily Mail * 'Stunning - it really stayed with me' -- Helen Kennedy QC * Books of the Year, The Guardian * 'Makes us question how memories are made, and fates formed' -- Gillian Slovo 'The way she intertwines past and present, nightmare and social comedy, brutal suffering and contemporary flirtation is adroit and elegant... everyone will read with horror and fascination' -- Edmund White

Bruno Lind is on a mission, though he may not know it. Irene Davies knows she is, but isn't sure it's the right one. Both of them are haunted by the legacy of a tangled history of love and war. Lind becomes the detective of his own unexplored life. He retraces those experiences of WWII, of refugee camps and migration. They take him to Poland and points East, to lost families and forgotton loves. Drawing on her intimate knowledge of central Europe explored in her acclaimed family memoir Losing the Dead, Lisa Appignanesi has created a compelling fiction which is also an exploration of mind and memory.