Do You Remember?

As the novel’s dynamic protagonist, Tess begins the story unsure of who she is because she has lost her memory of the last seven years. Throughout the narrative, she slowly learns to trust her intuition, allowing it to guide her back to her sense of self and identity. Tess is the first-person narrator, describing events as they happen, which lends immediacy and intrigue to the story.

Tess struggles but usually fails to connect one day’s events to the next because her husband, Graham, drugs her every night. However, as she narrates the events and her feelings during each of the five days the novel depicts, her thought patterns and the behavioral patterns of other characters provide information. Tess may question her suspicion of Graham, for example, but readers can see that he lies to her without hesitation and seems to take pleasure in manipulating and discomfiting her, like he does with the pomegranate juice.

Against the advice of her best friend, Lucy, Tess started her own business—My Home Spa—after her partner, Harry, told her it was a “million dollar” idea. Readers learn through one of Tess’s flashbacks that the company was doing quite well, and she was a savvy, decisive, and confident businesswoman before her accident and cancer diagnosis a year ago.