First published 2020
A woman boards a Peter Pan Bus to Philadelphia carrying no identification, no money, and no recollection of her identity. The state assigns her the name Wendy Doe and diagnoses dissociative fugue, a form of temporary amnesia that may resolve quickly or persist indefinitely. Dr. Benjamin Strauss recruits her for experimental studies at his Meadowlark Institute for Memory Research. Strauss views Wendy as a research specimen to examine and manipulate. His student Lizzie Epstein sees her as a compelling case study and wonders what a woman might become when freed from all social expectations. Meanwhile, Alice searches for her missing mother, whose disappearance creates a void that threatens to destroy Alice's stability. As each character attempts to solve the puzzle of Wendy's past, Wendy herself works to build a new identity from nothing. The investigation reveals how memory shapes selfhood and explores what remains when everything familiar vanishes.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, psychological-thriller
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: amnesia, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Meadowlark Institute for Memory Research, Philadelphia, Peter Pan Bus
Period: contemporary
327 pages · Hardcover · Scribner
Content warnings: mental-illness