"In truth, all sensation is already memory."—Henri Bergson

Suffused with examples from literature (such as the narrator's fear in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper") and real-life case studies (like patient Stella's "electrical buzzing" in her abdomen), psychiatrist Veronica O'Keane's riveting book explores the relationship between memory and identity. O'Keane makes her inquiry straightforward for readers without psychology degrees (simple diagrams depict otherwise complex brain mechanisms), and in explaining the biological formation of memory, it also answers such fascinating questions as "How do our brains interpret time, and why does that affect who I am in the present?" and "What happens when our brains short-circuit?" (RR)