What Alice Forgot

by Liane Moriarty

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A captivating story of a decade lost, and the efforts to recover it. Alice has forgotten everything from the age of 29 to 39 and finds her life in disarray. It’s charming, sharp, hilarious and asks pertinent questions around memories lost and found.

FROM THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF BIG LITTLE LIES AND HERE ONE MOMENT

A “cheerfully engaging”(Kirkus Reviews) novel for anyone who’s ever asked herself, “How did I get here?”

Alice Love is twenty-nine, crazy about her husband, and pregnant with her first child. So imagine Alice’s surprise when she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! She HATES the gym) and is whisked off to the hospital where she discovers the honeymoon is truly over—she’s getting divorced, she has three kids, and she’s actually 39 years old. Alice must reconstruct the events of a lost decade, and find out whether it’s possible to reconstruct her life at the same time. She has to figure out why her sister hardly talks to her, and how is it that she’s become one of those super skinny moms with really expensive clothes. Ultimately, Alice must discover whether forgetting is a blessing or a curse, and whether it’s possible to start over...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425247440
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/24/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	496
Sales rank:	40,883
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Liane Moriarty is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Nine Perfect Strangers, Three Wishes, Truly Madly Guilty, Big Little Lies, The Husband’s Secret, The Hypnotist’s Love Story, and What Alice Forgot. She lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two children.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1

She was floating, arms outspread, water lapping her body, breathing in a summery fragrance of salt and coconut. There was a pleasantly satisfied breakfast taste in her mouth of bacon and coffee and possibly croissants. She lifted her chin and the morning sun shone so brightly on the water, she had to squint through spangles of light to see her feet in front of her. Her toenails were each painted a different color. Red. Gold. Purple. Funny. The nail polish hadn’t been applied very well. Blobby and messy. Someone else was floating in the water right next to her. Someone she liked a lot, who made her laugh, with toenails painted the same way. The other person waggled multicolored toes at her companionably, and she was filled with sleepy contentment. Somewhere in the distance, a man’s voice shouted, “Marco?” and a chorus of children’s voices cried back, “Polo!” The man called out again, “Marco, Marco, Marco?” and the voices answered, “Polo, Polo, Polo!” A child laughed; a long, gurgling giggle, like a stream of soap bubbles. A voice said quietly and insistently in her ear, “Alice?” and she tipped back her head and let the cool water slide silently over her face.
Chapter 2

Jane said of course she would have come to the hospital with her but she had to be in court at two o’clock.
Chapter 3

Nick wasn’t waiting at the hospital with flowers for Alice. Nobody was waiting for her, which made her feel slightly heroic.
Chapter 4

Apparently Alice’s CT scan was “unremarkable,” which had made her feel ashamed of her mediocrity. It reminded her of her school reports with every single box ticked “Satisfactory” and comments like “A quiet student. Needs to contribute more in class.” They may as well have just come right out and written across the front: “So boring, we don’t actually know who she is.” Elisabeth’s reports had some boxes ticked “Outstanding” and others ticked “Below Standard” and comments like “Can be a little disruptive.” Alice had yearned to be a little disruptive, but she couldn’t work out how you got started.
(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "What Alice Forgot"
by .
Copyright © 2012 Liane Moriarty.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Moriarity makes this more than just a one-note story, weaving in a plotline involving Alice's childless sister… intriguing… will keep readers guessing and curious to know more about Alice.” —Library Journal

Reading Group Guide

INTRODUCTION

Alice Love is twenty-nine years old, madly in love with her husband, and pregnant with their first child. So imagine her surprise when, after a fall, she comes to on the floor of a gym (a gym! she HATES the gym!) and discovers that she's actually thirty-nine, has three children, and is in the midst of an acrimonious divorce.

A knock on the head has misplaced ten years of her life, and Alice isn't sure she likes who she's become. It turns out, though, that forgetting might be the most memorable thing that has ever happened to Alice.

ABOUT LIANE MORIARTY

Liane Moriarty is the author of two other novels, Three Wishes and The Last Anniversary, both of which have been published around the world and translated into seven languages. She is also the author of the Nicola Berry series for children. Moriarty lives in Sydney, Australia, with her husband and two small, noisy children.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Did you like the younger Alice best? Or did you relate more to the older Alice?

What would your younger self of ten years ago think of the person you are today?

What would surprise your younger self most about the life you're currently leading? What would disappoint you?

What would you think of your children? Are they how you imagined they would be? Are you the parent you envisioned? Why or why not?

Alice is shocked by many transformations—her gym-toned body, her clothes, her house. Are you more or less polished than you were a decade ago? And do you think there's any deeper significance to such change?

Do you think it was realistic that Alice ended up back with Nick? Were you happy with that ending? Do you think they would have ended up together if she hadn't lost her memory?

In order for Nick to be successful at his job, was it inevitable that he would spend less time with his family and thereby grow apart from Alice?

How did you feel about the sections written from the perspectives of Elisabeth and Frannie? Did they add to your enjoyment of the book, or would you have preferred to have it written entirely from Alice's point of view?

Do you think it was unavoidable that Elisabeth and Alice had grown apart, because of the tension caused by Elisabeth's infertility versus Alice's growing family? Or do you think their rift had more to do with the kind of people both of them had become?

It's not only Alice who changed over the last decade. Elisabeth changed, too. Do you think she would have been so accepting of the new Alice at the end if she herself didn't get pregnant?

Out of all the characters in the book, who do you think had changed the most over the past decade and why?

The film rights to the book have been sold to Fox 2000—who do you think would be good in the lead roles?

If you were to write a letter to your future self to be opened in ten years, what would you say?

Editorial Reviews

Praise for What Alice Forgot

“Funny and knowing...[about] what we choose to remember, and fight to forget.”—O Magazine

“The gripping story of a woman who wakes up with a bump on her head and no knowledge of the past ten years...an acutely observed romantic comedy that is both thought-provoking and funny.”—Marie Claire (UK)

“The affecting tale of Alice’s chance for a ten-year do-over.”—The New York Times

“Grabbed me on the first page…a deep and wondrous novel.”—New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice

“I loved this book. It has, for me, everything that makes a good novel excellent.”—New York Times bestselling author Jeanne Ray

“Heartfelt, witty, and thought-provoking...a story you’ll remember.”—New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie

“Highly addictive.”—She Magazine (UK; Book of the Month)

“I loved this original read.”—The Sun (UK)

“Funny and captivating.”—Closer (UK)

“Winning...well-paced, and thoroughly pleasurable.”—Publishers Weekly

“An often funny, sometimes heartrending, deeply personal portrait of a woman attempting to unravel her own mystery.”—Booklist

“Moriarity makes this more than just a one-note story, weaving in a plotline involving Alice's childless sister...intriguing...will keep readers guessing and curious to know more about Alice.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

This winning not-quite amnesia story parses what happens when Alice, a married mother of three whose marriage is disintegrating, takes a knock on the head and comes to thinking she is herself, but 10 years younger and in the middle of a blossoming young marriage, with her first child on the way. As younger Alice adjusts to her older life and body, she finds much to be surprised at: a wealthy lifestyle she never dreamed of, a rejuvenated mother with a surprising love interest, and a sister whose life has turned out unexpectedly disappointing. And everyone is so sorry for something that happened with her best friend Gina, whom she doesn't remember, but apparently who helped sow the seeds of her marriage's collapse. But as the young Alice takes over the older Alice's life and applies her goofy, laissez-faire approach to living, the tension builds: what will happen if old Alice regains her memory? Alice's journey of reconciling herself to how her life came to be what it is, and her slowly building understanding of how the threads of her marriage began to unravel, is moving, well-paced, and thoroughly pleasurable. (June)

Publishers Weekly

When Alice Love passes out at the gym and bonks her head, she wakes up with no memory of the past decade. It's a complete shock to her that she is thin, has three children, and is in the midst of a nasty divorce. She also has no idea why people don't want to talk to her about a mysterious woman named Gina, who was apparently her best friend. Moriarity makes this more than just a one-note story, weaving in a plotline involving Alice's childless sister. Deeper and much more serious than Sophie Kinsella's similarly themed Remember Me?, Moriarty's (Three Wishes; The Last Anniversary) intriguing story will keep readers guessing and curious to know more about Alice. [See Prepub Alert, 1/3/11.]

Library Journal

From Australian Moriarty (The Last Anniversary, 2006, etc.), domestic escapism about a woman whose temporary amnesia makes her re-examine what really matters to her.

Alice wakes from what she thinks is a dream, assuming she is a recently married 29-year-old expecting her first child. Actually she is 39, the mother of three and in the middle of an acrimonious custody battle with her soon-to-be ex-husband Nick. She's fallen off her exercise bike, and the resulting bump on her head has not only erased her memory of the last 10 years but has also taken her psychologically back to a younger, more easygoing self at odds with the woman she gathers she has become. While Alice-at-29 is loving and playful if lacking ambition or self-confidence, Alice-at-39 is a highly efficient if too tightly wound supermom. She is also thin and rich since Nick now heads the company where she remembers him struggling in an entry-level position. Alice-at-29 cannot conceive that she and Nick would no longer be rapturously in love or that she and her adored older sister Elisabeth could be estranged, and she is shocked that her shy mother has married Nick's bumptious father and taken up salsa dancing. She neither remembers nor recognizes her three children, each given a distinct if slightly too cute personality. Nor does she know what to make of the perfectly nice boyfriend Alice-at-39 has acquired. As memory gradually returns, Alice-at-29 initially misinterprets the scattered images and flashes of emotion, especially those concerning Gina, a woman who evidently caused the rift with Nick. Alice-at-29 assumes Gina was Nick's mistress, only to discover that Gina was her best friend. Gina died in a freak car accident and in her honor, Alice-at-39 has organized mothers from the kids' school to bake the largest lemon meringue pie on record. But Alice-at-29 senses that Gina may not have been a completely positive influence. Moriarty handles the two Alice consciousnesses with finesse and also delves into infertility issues through Elizabeth's diary.

Cheerfully engaging.

Kirkus Reviews