Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin 
(Farrar Strauss Giroux, 2007)
Imagine having no memory of events that happened in your life over the last four years. If you were dating someone, you don’t remember. If you were learning a new language, you don’t remember. That’s what happens to Naomi Porter. She loses a coin toss with her co-editor of the high school yearbook, so she has to go back to the office to retrieve the expensive camera they left behind. Naomi falls down the stairs, and in a frantic attempt to protect the camera, she hits her head and loses four years worth of short-term memory.
Naomi can’t remember why she was dating Ace, especially when she’s attracted to someone else, and she also can’t remember the last four years of changes in her parents’ lives and marriage, or why she pursued some activities in school and not others. Naomi has to rely on her friends and family to piece together events in her life. What if she is not sure she likes the Naomi she hears about? How do identities evolve? How much of other people’s perceptions have shaped Naomi’s identity? Can we reinvent ourselves?
This thoughtful story about identity and character is rich in metaphor. Don’t miss Zevin’s other fascinating YA novel, Elsewhere (Christie, The Loft).
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