What My Body Remembers
Agnete Friis
ISBN: 9781616958961
Published: May, 2017
Pricing
Paperback $15.95
More books by Agnete Friis
Description
Ella Nygaard was seven years old when her father murdered her mother. In the twenty years since, she has suffered from incapacitating panic attacks. After a particularly bad episode, the authorities threaten to take away Ella’s son, Alex. Desperate, she whisks Alex to the only sanctuary she knows: her grandmother’s abandoned seaside h...
Ella Nygaard was seven years old when her father murdered her mother. In the twenty years since, she has suffered from incapacitating panic attacks. After a particularly bad episode, the authorities threaten to take away Ella’s son, Alex. Desperate, she whisks Alex to the only sanctuary she knows: her grandmother’s abandoned seaside home, where she’s forced to confront the demons of her childhood that her memory has tried so hard to obscure. If Ella can start to remember, maybe her scars will begin to heal—or maybe the truth will put her in even greater danger.
Media
“Agnete Friis's storytelling haunts and grips and satisfies wildly. I love how she constructs palpable edge and suspense, but am especially captivated by the richness, depth, and organic quality of her amazingly vivid cast of characters. What My Body Remembers is a tense and riveting thrill ride. I devoured her visionary storytelling in one satisfying bite.”
–Sara Blaedel, international bestselling author of The Forgotten Girls
“[Friis] expertly weaves Ella's current life with the days and weeks leading up to the crime... A deeply resonant tale about one woman's attempts to embrace her past while setting herself free.”
–Kirkus Reviews on What My Body Remembers
“The skillfully calibrated atmospheric tension and Ella’s realistically awkward struggle toward redemption will appeal to fans of literary suspense like that of Jennifer McMahon and Karin Fossum.”
–Booklist, Starred Review on What My Body Remembers
“Devastating... Friis’s writing is propulsive, and the book’s twisty conclusion will shock and gratify.”
–Publishers Weekly on What My Body Remembers
“A dark, fast-paced, and compelling mystery that will fascinate aficionados of Nordic noir.”
–Library Journal on What My Body Remembers
“Fans of Karin Fossum will feel right at home in Friis’ writing, from her measured pacing to her vividly-drawn characters... totally satisfying, tense, and immersive.”
–Crime by the Book
“[Friis] delivers a realistic, gritty thriller with a lot of heart. You will find yourself rooting for the angry, damaged underdog Ella who yearns to have a normal life with her son. This novel is hopeful and uplifting and while delivered in the sober tones characteristic of Nordic noir, you may still feel a hitch in your throat at it’s cathartic ending.”
–Crime Fiction Lover on What My Body Remembers
“Sparkling prose... a twisty plot, and the pages did keep turning... Book snobs, here’s your first unguilty beach read of spring.”
–Words without Borders
“The first solo novel by Friis, translated from the Danish by Lindy Falk van Rooyen, measures up to the best-selling Nordic noir novel The Boy in the Suitcase. Ella Nygaard, 27, is a flawed, memorable character.”
–The BBC "Between the Lines"
“[A] must read.... Better known as half of the duo who co-wrote the socially conscious Nina Borg series (along with Lene Kaaberbøl), Friis brings that same liberal political slant to this new thriller about love and violence in families.”
–LitHub
“Breaks the mould... Friis had an uncanny ability with her prose to suck me in and make me lose track of time.”
Clues & Reviews
“Breathtaking.”
–Toronto Star
“[A] complex and multi-layered mystery... [Readers] may well be caught off guard by a character who stubbornly does everything she can to be unlovable, yet somehow becomes an enormously sympathetic guide to the experience of lives lived on the fringes of society.”
–Reviewing the Evidence on What My Body Remembers
“A dark and disturbing tale that is primarily a social study and cautionary piece with an underpinning mystery. It is not an experience that one is likely to forget easily.”
–Bookreporter.com
“[Friis] doesn't sugarcoat Ella's life; mental illness and poverty, plus notoriety in her hometown for being a murderer's daughter, add up to a bleak existence.... A memorable read.”
–Shelf Awareness on What My Body Remembers
“A first-rate novel of psychological and emotional suspense... Ella is a fascinating, complex character... Highly recommended!”