What Alice Forgot

What Liane says

I had always wanted to write a story about time travel but I found the logistics made my head explode. Then I read a story about a woman in the UK who lost her memory and behaved like a teenager – she didn’t recognise her husband or children. I realized that memory loss is a form of time travel. So I came up with the idea of a woman, Alice, who loses 10 years of her memory. She thinks she is 29, pregnant with her first child and blissfully in love with her husband. She is horrified to discover she is 39, with 3 children and in the middle of a terrible divorce. It’s like the younger Alice has travelled forward in time. Readers tell me that what they liked best about this novel was how it made them think about the choices they’d made and wonder how their younger selves would feel about the lives they are leading now.

What the reviewers said

“Compelling and entertaining.’ GOOD READING

“A great story which would be perfect for curling up with - I couldn't put it down.' AUSTRALIAN BOOKSELLER & PUBLISHER

‘A bittersweet tale by a gifted writer, whose light touch doesn’t stop her exploring darker themes, such as infertility and the sad erosion of a once radiant love.’ AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY Book of the Month

‘What [Moriarty] writes are acute social comedies of the feminine, where the domestic is more political than cosy…Technically this premise is a challenge, which Moriarty makes appear effortless…bravura depiction. Great stuff’
THE AGE

‘A thought-provoking story that explores family dynamics with intelligence, wit and sensitivity but without any sentimentality.’ COURIER-MAIL

‘The pages turn with ease as the mysteries of modern domestic life unfold and the pieces of Alice’s lost decade slip back into place.’ SUNDAY TIMES

‘ She creates a lovely family jigsaw, the pages turning with ease as the mysteries of modern domestic life unfold and the pieces of Alice’s lost decade slip back into place.’ HERALD SUN

‘There is gentle comedy bubbling through this book…but there is sorrow, too…a well-crafted story from an intriguing premise.’ NOTEBOOK Magazine

Readers Guide Questions

Did you like the younger Alice best? Or did you relate more to the older Alice?
What would your younger self of ten years ago think of the person you are today?
What would surprise your younger self most about the life you’re currently
leading? What would disappoint you?
What would you think of your children? Are they how you imagined they would
be? Are you the parent you envisioned? Why or why not?
Alice is shocked by many transformations—her gym-toned body, her clothes, her
house. Are you more or less polished than you were a decade ago? And do you
think there’s any deeper significance to such change?
Do you think it was realistic that Alice ended up back with Nick? Were you
happy with that ending? Do you think they would have ended up together if she
hadn’t lost her memory?
In order for Nick to be successful at his job, was it inevitable that he would spend
less time with his family and thereby grow apart from Alice?
How did you feel about the sections written from the perspectives of Elisabeth
and Frannie? Did they add to your enjoyment of the book, or would you have
preferred to have it written entirely from Alice’s point of view?
Do you think it was unavoidable that Elisabeth and Alice had grown apart,
because of the tension caused by Elisabeth’s infertility versus Alice’s growing
family? Or do you think their rift had more to do with the kind of people both of
them had become?
It’s not only Alice who changed over the last decade. Elisabeth changed, too. Do
you think she would have been so accepting of the new Alice at the end if she
herself didn’t get pregnant?
Out of all the characters in the book, who do you think had changed the most over
the past decade and why?
The film rights to the book have been sold to Fox 2000—who do you think would
be good in the lead roles?
If you were to write a letter to your future self to be opened in ten years, what
would you say?