The Girl He Used to Know

The novel alternates between two timelines: Annika and Jonathan's college romance in 1991–1992 and their reunion in Chicago in the summer and fall of 2001.

In August 2001, Annika, a thirty-two-year-old librarian, runs into Jonathan at a Chicago grocery store. They have not seen each other in ten years. Though Annika struggles to read social cues and her instinct is to flee, she follows her therapist Tina's advice and asks Jonathan to get together. Jonathan transferred to Chicago five years ago to care for his mother, who has since died of dementia. Recently divorced, he is cautious about reconnecting.

Flashbacks to 1991 reveal Annika as a senior at the University of Illinois whose life revolves around the Wildlife Medical Clinic, the library, and the chess club. She is easily overwhelmed by sensory input and struggles with social interaction. Chess, taught to her by her father at age seven, is the one activity where she feels she fits in because its rigid logic matches her worldview. Jonathan joins the club and Annika beats him decisively. Over subsequent weeks he walks her home after meetings, asking questions she answers curtly. Her college survival depends on Janice, a roommate who defended her from unkind dorm mates during freshman year and helped her discover the chess club, giving her a reason to stay.

In the present, Jonathan meets Annika for coffee but treats it as a one-time event. When she realizes he does not intend to see her again, she is crushed. Tina helps her understand that his reluctance may stem from his recent divorce, not just from their past. Annika invites Jonathan to lunch in the park, where he brings a chessboard to put her at ease. She tells him she is ready to take initiative this time and mentions two failed relationships since him. Jonathan asks to take things slow.

In the 1991 timeline, Jonathan convinces Annika to join the competition chess team and drives her to a tournament in St. Louis, where she wins all three matches. When a diner employee calls out that she cannot enter barefoot, having removed her uncomfortable shoes and forgotten to put them back on, she flees in humiliation. Jonathan follows with food and afterward asks her on a date, saying he can be himself with her. On their first date, the noise of a campus bar overwhelms Annika, and she spots Jake, a boy who exploited her during sophomore year by inviting her to his room under the pretense of a relationship and appearing to arrange a situation for his friends to watch. Janice had intervened at the time to protect her. The trauma resurfaces and Annika bolts into the street. Jonathan catches her, listens to her story, and cuts the tag from a sweatshirt for her comfort, revealing his understanding of her sensory needs. He kisses her for the first time at her doorstep.

Their relationship deepens. Jonathan learns Annika's sensory boundaries as physical intimacy grows. He gives her perfume she cannot wear because scent overwhelms her; she treasures the bottle. He discovers a tube of red lipstick included with the purchase, applies it to her lips, then presses his forehead to hers, offering closeness without eye contact. At the Pan-American Championship in Chicago, Annika tells Jonathan she loves him for the first time. He asks her to move to New York after graduation, and she agrees.

In the spring of 1992, Annika collapses with severe abdominal pain. Doctors discover an ectopic pregnancy: The embryo implanted in her fallopian tube, which has ruptured, requiring emergency surgery. She had missed several birth control pills, not intentionally but in the haphazard way she sometimes forgets to eat or brush her hair. The loss sends her into severe depression. At her parents' home, she considers suicide, reaching for a bottle of pain pills, but her father silently enters her room and holds her hand all day, tethering her to life. Jonathan graduates and moves to New York alone. Annika returns to campus, living independently for the first time, and develops meticulous routines. She enrolls in graduate school, postponing New York. Her mother Linda reveals she arranged for Janice to look after Annika, and tells her that life will always be harder for her but people will love her as she is. Jonathan's calls go increasingly unanswered. He eventually leaves a message saying he has met someone. Annika is devastated but recognizes that losing him is the price of her independence.

In the present, the reconciliation deepens. Jonathan takes Annika to a formal work dinner, where she navigates introductions by mimicking the other women, a performance that exhausts her. On a double date with Jonathan's friend Nate and Nate's girlfriend Sherry, Annika goes off script after two glasses of wine, rattling off Eleanor Roosevelt quotes. Sherry says she has a nephew who is "a lot like" Annika. Stunned, Annika flees in tears. At her apartment, Jonathan tells her he has always known about her differences. Annika admits Tina thinks she is on the autism spectrum. They make love and finally discuss the past: Annika apologizes for the pills and reveals she thought about never waking up that summer. She explains she never stopped loving him but needed to prove she could manage on her own. Jonathan admits he gave up and married a woman named Liz, Annika's opposite, who ultimately cheated on him. A neuropsychologist later confirms Annika is on the autism spectrum and prescribes antianxiety medication.

On September 10, 2001, Annika brings dinner to Jonathan's office as his team prepares for a New York trip. That evening, he tells Annika he loves her and needs her to stop running. She promises she will not run again. The next morning, she is watching television when a plane hits the North Tower of the World Trade Center. She calls Jonathan, who is in the South Tower for a meeting, and urges him to leave. He overrules his boss Bradford, who insists everyone stay, and orders his coworkers to take the stairs. The second plane strikes the South Tower while they are on the phone, and the connection is severed. The towers collapse. Jonathan does not call.

Despite having only recently learned to drive, Annika sets out alone for New Jersey on September 12 to stay with Janice and search for Jonathan in New York. Along the way she picks up a stranded man named Ray and his young son Henry. She and Janice visit hospitals and a family assistance center in Manhattan, where Annika learns Jonathan went back up the stairwell to help a coworker. Her brother Will, who lives in New York, joins her and suggests revisiting hospitals. At the ninth hospital, a nurse leads them to a John Doe in intensive care. Annika identifies the unconscious man as Jonathan by the planes of his bruised face and a scar on his knee. Doctors explain he was pulled alive from the rubble with severe respiratory injuries, a shattered pelvis, and broken legs.

Annika resigns from the library and stays at Jonathan's bedside for three months as he recovers. He survives pneumonia that nearly kills him. Bradford calls and tells Annika that Liz did not survive the attacks. When Jonathan can speak, he asks how she got to New York. She tells him she drove. In December, they fly home to Chicago, and Jonathan moves into her apartment. While sorting mail, Annika finds an envelope from Ray and Henry containing two hundred dollars, a thank-you note, and a child's drawing of a blond woman in a princess crown driving a car, a man in the passenger seat, and a blue duck in the backseat.