What a book! This book was the most thought provoking book I have read in a long, long time. Sort of Orwellian and with faint flicker of 1984 shadows...but also completely different. Each sentence was delicately and beautifully crafted. It needed to be read aloud at times to really let the perfection of the language flow out of the pages. At times, especially at the end of chapters, I had to put the book down, within easy reach, and look about me at a different world. It left me breathless at times. Although it is about the nature of memory I think it is also about how we define ourselves. What makes us who we are. It is about how society molds us and how aware we are of that. It made me think about how readily we accept what we are told ...there are parts of a story the narrator is writing interspersed with the main story..Although it seems a bit of an intrusion to start with, those sections really come together with the main story in a frightening way... The book is surreal and weird...but has so many thoughts in it it will take me a long time to digest it properly. I utterly loved it. There is a description of a little birthday party about two thirds of the way in that was so poignant and delicately written! Not five star quite, but up there at 4.5. For me anyway.