From New York Times bestseller and National Book Award winner Joyce Carol Oates, a taut and fascinating novel that examines the mysteries of human memory and personality as they are bound up with the most mysterious phenomenon of all - love.
In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes: the “ man without a shadow, ” who will be known, in time, as the most-studied and most famous amnesiac in history. A vicious infection has clouded anything beyond the last seventy seconds just beyond the fog of memory.
Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirrored journeys of self-discovery: Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli’ s shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of self in the process. Made vivid by Oates’ usual eye for detail, and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex, unique among her novels for its intimate portrayal of a forbidden relationship that can never be publicly revealed.
