"An expansive look at how memory shapes identity. Throughout, Rowlands provides perceptive insights into how the brain negotiates the past, how memory shapes the self, and how identity is therefore best understood as a complex, shifting entity that exists beyond “the spatial boundaries of your body” and experience. A mind-expanding meditation on what humans recall and why.”

– Publishers Weekly

"A concise yet profound examination of the nature of memory and its role in shaping who we are. It is both scientific and wonderfully human. Short, readable chapters are like genial conversations with readers as Rowlands describes his experiences and memories of his father, along with explaining the science behind how and why these memories have evolved."

– Library Journal, Starred review

"A charming philosophical take on a fact that ought to be much more widely known: that our memories may be stories, but they are our stories."

– Charles Fernyhough, author of Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory

"Fascinating, disturbing and ultimately reassuring—a deep dive into the messy filing cabinet of self. If you only remember one book you read this year, it will be this one."

– Tim Dowling, author of How to be a Husband and columnist for The Guardian

Praise for Mark Rowlands

“Rarely has a single animal inspired such deep reflections on morality, mortality,and misanthropy.”

– Frans de Waal, author of Mama's Last Hug

"Rowlands recovered his own humanity by loving a noble beast and (with a little help from Aristotle, Descartes, and Jack Daniel's) learning to howl at the moon.”
 

– Oprah Daily

“One of the most intense reading experiences of my life. It is a profound and beautiful book.”

– Jeffrey Masson, author of When Elephants Weep

“Delightful and eye-opening.”

– The Miami Herald