The Book of Memory: How We Become Who We Are

Summary

A brilliant journey through the nature of memory, helping us understand how what is lost—and what is remembered—shapes who we are.

In this revelatory and intimate exploration of the way memory works, Mark Rowlands, author of The Philosopher and the Wolf, reveals how memories aren’t fixed. They soften and consolidate—and are distorted—each time we revisit them, even those memories most deeply ingrained. The way we call on memory is closer to a "negotiation with the past."

From episodic memories like "shining islands in dark waters" and forgotten "Rilkean" memories that underpin our personalities and essential style to the memories we might hold that have been authored by others close to us, The Book of Memory draws on philosophical argument, a range of writers and thinkers, the latest neurological research, and psychology experiments to chart how memories are made, lost and remembered, with important consequences for how we understand ourselves.