Thats exactly what Flora Banks experiences in journalist-turned-author Emily Barrs latest book,The One Memory of Flora Banks.
EW spoke to Barr about her novels location and the challenges of writing a teenager with amnesia.
Also, see an exclusive look at the cover ofThe One Memory of Flora Banks.
Credit: Craig Green via Randomhouse
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: You travelled to Svalbard, Norway with the aim of setting a book there.
What was it about that city that inspired you to do that?
BARR:I woke up one day with a book in my head that was set in the Arctic.
I wanted to write a thriller set in a place in which it never gets dark.
Many more polar bears than people live there.
How did your time there shape this novel?
What made you decide to make your protagonist a teenage amnesiac?
When I started writing the book Flora was older, in her twenties, but it didnt quite work.
When I tried it with her being younger it all fell into place.
What was it like writing a character with no short-term memory?
Was there a lot of research involved?
Did you learn anything interesting during that process?
That was surprisingly difficult.
Your book stirred up a lot of interest.
I wrote this book without a publisher, because it was so different from my previous ones.
The One Memory of Flora Bankswill be published May 16, 2017.
