The Book of M

2020 Longlist

One afternoon at an outdoor market in India, a man’s shadow disappears, inexplicably. He is only the first. The phenomenon spreads like a plague, and while those afflicted gain a strange new power, it comes at a horrible price: the loss of all their memories. Ory and his wife Max have escaped the Forgetting so far by hiding in an abandoned hotel deep in the woods. But one day Max’s shadow disappears too. Knowing that the more she forgets, the more dangerous she will become to Ory, Max runs away. But Ory refuses to give up the time they have left together. Desperate to find Max before her memory disappears completely, he tracks her across a perilous, unrecognizable world in which the sinister cult of the shadowless worshippers is on the rise.

About the Author

Peng Shepherd was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, where she rode horses and trained in classical ballet, and has lived in many different countries. Her debut novel, The Book of M, has been featured in The Guardian, Gizmodo, Book Riot, and Elle Canada. She is a winner of the Elizabeth George Foundation’s emerging writers grant.

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