From Shari Lapena we already expect one of those great literary constructions of suspense, of a domestic thriller like the one she showed us in The couple next door.
And certainly in this book A stranger at home The Canadian writer reissues that formula of fear hovering over the close with the laudable intention of the most difficult yet.
On some occasion I have heard doctors and specialists between the neuronal and the psychological say that losing memory in an accident can be a product of the physical trauma itself or a consequence of emotional trauma. Considering that ability of our psyche to decompose a reality that has suddenly violated us causing us intense harm, it is not surprising that Karen navigates the misty terrain of her mind after hitting the road with a car.
But is it the accident or is her amnesia a defense mechanism over something else, another pending issue that she seems to intuit amid the fog of her present?
Her husband Tom is happy to get his wife back in what could have been a fatal accident. Too much speed, why was he going so fast? Where was he going? What was he running from? Or was it just that he was late for an appointment. These are not questions Tom asks himself ...
It is rather Karen herself who wants to know. You need to know what has happened to you and your own mind only shows you empty answers, like those treacherous evocations of something that you know is important but that you cannot lift from the well of the mind.
Because, despite everything, despite the happiness of knowing that she is alive after a fatal car accident, something squeaks in that reality to which she has returned.
Karen believes that the concussion will eventually give way to light, but she also knows that she may not have that much time and doubts whether to wait for the moment to find out or if she considers it imperative to flee again without yet knowing why.
The mind can go through its own twists and turns, but sometimes the survival instinct simply depends on the physical, on the cellular. Fear is embedded in many parts of the body, like an alarm system in case reason fails.
With a small discount through this blog (always appreciated), you can now buy the novel A stranger at home, Shari Lapena's new book, here: