Joanna Luloff Wins Peace Corps Writers Maria Thomas Fiction Award of 2019 (Sri Lanka)

Remind Me Again What Happened
By Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka 1996-98).

Published in 2018

Joanna Luloff (Sri Lanka 1996-98) is the author of a story collection, The Beach at Galle Road, a Barnes & Noble Discover selection. She lives in Denver, where she teaches at the University of Colorado.

Claire wakes in a hospital room in the Florida Keys. She has no idea how she got there or why. The loss of so many memories is paralyzing. Some things she can piece together by looking at old photos saved by her husband, Charlie, and her best friend, Rachel, and by combing through boxes of letters and casual jottings. But she senses a mystery at the center of all these fragments of her past, a feeling that something is not complete. Is Charlie still her husband? Is Rachel still her friend?

Told from alternating points of view that pull the reader into the minds of the three characters, the story unfolds as the smudge that covers Claire’s memory is gradually, steadily wiped away, until finally she can understand the why and the how of her life. And then maybe she and Charlie and Rachel can move forward, but with their lives forever changed.

In Remind Me Again What Happened, debut novelist Joanna Luloff has written a moving and beautifully nuanced story of transience, the ebb and flow of time, and how relationships shift and are reconfigured by each day, hour, and minute.

“Disorienting and haunting, in all the best ways . . . a poignant story about love, friendship, and the secrets that keep people apart — and keep people together.”
—Bustle

“Fascinating . . . A novel of sonorous character study, showing both the limits and allure of truly knowing another person—and oneself.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“A thought-provoking exploration of love, relationships, and the role of the past in defining the present.”
—Booklist

“Using thriller conventions to meditate on memory, the novel . . . raises pointed questions about just how reliable any narrative of one’s life can be.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Claire wakes from a coma with only fragmented memories, and her struggle toward recovery is both a haunting mystery story and a beautiful meditation on the questions of what, exactly, identity, love and friendship are made up of. Remind Me Again What Happened is a gripping debut novel, and Joanna Luloff is a writer to watch!”
—Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will

“Remind Me Again What Happened is a profound and elegiac exploration of the relationship between memory and identity, the way one has the power to remake the other. Joanna Luloff is a splendid writer, and this haunting novel is a wonderful testament to her gifts.”
—Laura van den Berg, author of Find Me

“A page-turner filled with depth, secrecy, and thrill that’ll have you questioning your own concept of truth and reality.”
—5280Magazine

“This psychological thriller tells the story of shifts in time and how relationships are reconfigured each day.”
—BuzzFeed