From Goodreads
Given its surprising beauty and assured voice, it's hard to believe that When I Forgot
is Elina Hirvonen's first novel. While on her way to the hospital where
her brother is institutionalized, Anna experiences a moment of
recollection so arresting it shatters her world — a recollection of
searing pain and madness. Exploring psychological trauma, the boundaries
of memory, and the political ramifications of September 11, 2001, When I Forgot
offers gripping insights into the universal themes of suppressed pain
and, above all, retaining a sense of hope in an increasingly grim world.
My thoughts
The story is told over one day with flashbacks to the past. Anna is sitting in a cafe while she kills time before reluctantly going to visit her brother Joona, an inpatient in a Psychiatrict Hospital. Anna is a young Finnish woman with an American lover called Ian, who used to be her Professor.
With links to the Vietnam war and its horrors through Ian's father and more recent events in history the story links the mental problems in both the families, so both have an understanding of the problems being experienced now and what they've been through in the past.
The story is well written and moves along quite nicely, it's quite short at just over a 180 pages so a lot is fit into a short amount of space and as such doesn't waste any narratve at all. A great debut novel and an Author to look out for again. 7/10.
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