"Challenging, intricate, and intriguing, this literary science fiction novel dwells within two time frames and explores what it is to be human in the world of speculative science. "
If you delight in speculative fiction and feel a frisson of excitement when a novel thoroughly provokes your thoughts, then step this way. Irish film director, screenwriter and author Neil Jordan has created an unsettling and intriguing atmosphere. Ireland sings a song of the land and sea, community and people. There is two hundred years between the future present of 2084 and the past, and the two time frames often blend into each other. I felt disconcerted by the lack of framework between the time periods, and until I understood who resided where and internally felt the change in direction, there were moments where I was a little lost in time. Another deliberate disturbance is the lack of speech marks, for me it created an almost dreamlike quality to the writing. It sets up a challenging read, both in terms of the writing and the concept. Jagged moments slash through feelings, the intricacies of the future creates a haunting that feels within desperate reach. The ebb and flow of The Library of Traumatic Memory ensures a challenging and provocative novel as it explores the dark and traumatic side of human emotion.
| Primary Genre | Science Fiction |
| Other Genres: |
The first literary science fiction novel from Neil Jordan, visionary director of The Company of Wolves and Interview with the Vampire
In a windswept corner of a forgotten peninsula, love and loss echo through the halls of a mansion built on secrets. Here memory is currency of the future, and the past refuses to stay buried.
In the year 2084, Christian Cartwright, a quiet librarian at the enigmatic Huxley Institute, spends his days archiving the world's most painful memories in the Library of Traumatic Memory.
But when his lover Isolde dies in a mysterious car crash, Christian secretly resurrects her as a digital consciousness - an act of grief, obsession, and defiance.
As Christian navigates a world where memories can be edited, dreams harvested, and the dead made to speak, he uncovers a deeper conspiracy buried in the Institute's foundations - one that stretches back centuries to his 18th-century ancestor Montagu Cartwright, the architect of the Huxley Mansion.
Montagu's obsidian mirror and copper model may hold the key to a reality where architecture shapes fate and time loops back on itself.
Blending gothic mystery, speculative science, and philosophical depth, The Library of Traumatic Memory is a haunting meditation on love, loss, and the ethics of memory.
As the past and future collide, Christian must decide what it means to remember - and what it costs to forget.
The Library of Traumatic Memory features in the following genres: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Speculative fiction, Narrative theme: Sense of place, Historical Fiction
The Library of Traumatic Memory is available in Paperback, Hardback
The Library of Traumatic Memory was written by Neil Jordan and published by Head of Zeus an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing (UK)
The Library of Traumatic Memory has 336 pages
£18.00
