Everything I Don't Remember: A Novel

About this book

A 2016 Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year as Chosen by Joyce Carol Oates One of Swedens most celebrated young writers and activists spins an exhilarating innovative and gripping murder mystery reminiscent of the hit podcast Serial. A young man named Samuel dies in a horrible car crash. Was it an accident or was it suicide? To answer that question an unnamed writer with an agenda of his own sets out to map Samuels last day alive. Through conversations with friends relatives and neighbors a portrait of Samuel emerges: the loving grandchild the reluctant bureaucrat the loyal friend the contrived poseur. The young man who did everything for his girlfriend Laide and shared everything with his best friend Vandad. Until he lost touch with them both. By piecing together an exhilarating narrative puzzle we follow Samuel from the first day he encounters the towering Vandad to when they become roommates. We meet Panther Samuels self-involved childhood friend whose move to Berlin indirectly cues the beginning of Samuels search for the meaning of lovewhich in turn leads Samuel to Laide. Soon Samuels relationship with Laide leads to a chasm in his friendship with Vandad and it isnt long before the lines between loyalty and betrayal protection and peril get blurred irrevocably. Everything I Dont Remember is a gripping tale about love and memory. But it is also a story about a writer who by filling out the contours of Samuels story is actually trying to grasp a truth about himself. In the end what remains of all our fleeting memories? And what is hidden behind everything we dont remember? Told with Khemiris characteristic stylistic ingenuity this is an emotional roller coaster ride of a book that challenges us to see ourselvesand our relationships to the closest people in our livesin new and sometimes shocking ways.