by Liane Moriarty

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, $24.95, 425 pages

Losing your keys is one thing, but losing ten years of your life is quite another. That is the situation facing Alice Love, in Liane Moriarty’s What Alice Forgot.  When Alice wakes up from a nasty bump on the head, not only does she think it is 1998 but she believes that she is the person she was ten years ago.  Babies are yet to be born, relationships are still intact, and she has never graced the door of a gym. But, as Alice soon discovers, a lot can happen in ten years, and the woman she has become, both in body and spirit is a stranger. A woman named Gina seems to hold the key to helping Alice discover her past, but she quickly learns that understanding and accepting who she has become is a difficult process. As the memories return, so does the pain and Alice hovers between wanting her memories back, and being afraid of what they might reveal about her as a wife, mother, friend, sister, and daughter. With clues and unanswered questions sprinkled throughout the book, Alice is as much a mystery to the reader as she is to herself. This adds an intriguing element to the story as both reader and Alice dissect her life and uncover a few twists and bumps along the way.

Reviewed by Michelle Lockhart