Tell Me an Ending: A Novel

by Jo Harkin, Tania Rodrigues (Read by)

Overview

Never Let Me Go meets Black Mirror in this thrilling dystopian debut about a tech company that deletes unwanted memories, the consequences for those forced to contend with what they tried to forget, and the dissenting doctor who seeks to protect her patients from further harm.

What if you once had a painful memory removed? And what if you were offered the chance to get it back?

Tell Me an Ending follows four characters grappling with the question of what to remember—and what they hoped to forget forever.

Finn, an Irish architect living in the Arizona desert, begins to suspect his charming wife of having an affair. Mei, a troubled grad school drop-out in Kuala Lumpur, wonders why she remembers a city she’s never visited. William, a former police inspector in England, struggles with PTSD, the breakdown of his marriage, and his own secret family history. Oscar, a handsome young man with almost no memories at all, travels the world in a constant state of fear.

Into these characters lives comes Noor, an emotionally closed-off psychologist at the memory removal clinic in London, who begins to suspect her glamorous boss Louise of serious wrongdoing.

Clever and propulsive, Tell Me an Ending is a speculative novel exploring what the world would be like if we were able to wipe away our worst moments. In this polyphonic tale, author Jo Harkin raises provocative questions about the nature of memory, through characters who confront new knowledge about themselves and a need for answers, meaning, connection, and story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781797135595
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Audio
Publication date:	03/01/2022
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 5.67(h) x 1.89(d)

About the Author

Jo Harkin studied literature at university. She daydreamed her way through various jobs in her twenties before becoming a full-time writer. She lives in Berkshire, England, and Tell Me an Ending is her first novel.

Tania Rodrigues is a London-based actor and voice artist and an Earphones Award–winning narrator. She brings a unique cultural perspective to her work, coming from a family with roots in India, Portugal, and Britain. She grew up in Hong Kong and has since lived in both the UK and US. She trained at the Drama Studio in London and completed a BA degree with honors in English and drama. She has narrated many award-winning audiobooks, including the Booker Prize winner The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai.

Reading Group Guide

This reading group guide for TELL ME AN ENDING includes an introduction, discussion questions, and ideas for enhancing your book club. The suggested questions are intended to help your reading group find new and interesting angles and topics for your discussion. We hope that these ideas will enrich your conversation and increase your enjoyment of the book.

Introduction

Dr. Noor Ali is a psychologist working at Nepenthe, a memory removal clinic in London. Public opinion of the company is in decline following the discovery that memories might not be permanently gone—and clients’ subsequent lawsuit demanding the right to get them back. Although Noor usually disregards the daily protests, she starts to suspect her boss, Louise, of questionable practices.

As the company honors its obligation to offer restorations to all patients, including those who chose to forget having had the procedure, four characters’ lives are touched by the question of whether to remember: Finn, an Irish architect, begins to suspect his wife of infidelity. Mei, a troubled grad school dropout, has flashbacks from a city she has never visited. William, a former police inspector, struggles to understand the origins of his PTSD. Oscar, a young man with almost no memories at all, knows only that he is on the run.

Everyone is searching for answers.

Topics & Questions for Discussion

1. What is your opinion of Nepenthe’s memory removal technology? If it were real, would you support the removal of traumatic memories? Would you consider undergoing the procedure yourself?

2. Tell Me an Ending tackles themes of memory and identity, weaving in philosophical ideas from Locke and Hume. Do you believe that one’s sense of self depends on memories? Are memories just a part of what makes up a person’s identity? And is there such a thing as a consistent self or identity?

3. Noor’s memory of her complicated romance with Elena is woven throughout her narrative. What does this relationship add to your understanding of Noor?

4. Even before her memory wipe, Mei deleted all her online conversations with her former friends, untagged herself from their photos, and unfriended them on social media. Talk about the ways you, or those you know, have tried to manage memories.

5. When Finn and Mirande discover that she secretly had a memory removed, Finn begins to suspect her of infidelity. By the end of their story he has reached a decision about their marriage. How do you think he resolved his internal struggle, and what effect did his daughter Ri have on his state of mind?

6. In light of the discovery of Mirande’s memory removal, how do you think the story might be different if we followed her instead of Finn?

7. Mei and Oscar are troubled by the missing parts of their own lives and want to figure out their pasts, despite the fact that they agreed to remove those memories for the sake of their mental health. What does this ironic circumstance suggest about mental health care? Of human nature?

8. What do you think about the way Louise handled her daughter’s psychological struggles? Do you think she did what she genuinely thought was best for her daughter, or were her motives more self-serving?

9. After discovering the details of Oscar’s past, were you surprised? What did you suppose [ML1] [WK2] Oscar might have done before discovering the truth?

10. What did you think of Louise’s reasoning about her secret activities at the clinic? Do you side more with her or with Noor?

11. Do you think that William was helped by his memory removal, or did it cause him more harm in the end? How do you think he could have been better supported in his struggles?

12. Compare the first quote in the epigraph by Sartre, “A man is always a teller of tales, he lives surrounded by his stories and the stories of others . . .” and Louise’s statement, “There are no stories. There are no rules. There are no answers.” (p. 419). How do you think these conflicting ideas capture the novel?

13. In her investigation, Noor reflects on three stories: Captain Kirk’s forgotten love with Rayna in an early Star Trek episode, Orlando Paladino, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Why do you think these three narratives come to mind? How do they guide Noor in her analysis of memory and the implications of forgetting?

14. How does Noor evolve as a person over the course of the story?

Enhance Your Book Club

1. Test your memory! Have someone show you a picture and ask you to memorize as much as you can. Then, have them put the photo away and quiz you on details immediately, five minutes later, an hour later, then a day later. See how accurate your memory is each time.

2. The novel is informed by the results of scientific studies on memory. In the author’s note (p. 433), Jo Harkin mentions Nader, Schafe, and LeDoux and their groundbreaking work demonstrating the existence of memory reconsolidation. Consider reading more about their research.

Editorial Reviews

We’re in the hands of a writer with a literary long view... Harkin seizes the opportunity to subvert expectation... An excellent first work by a promising new author.” —Locus



"A cleverly conceived and wonderfully executed ensemble piece: intriguing, frightening, witty and humane." —Wall Street Journal

“Sharply, beautifully written and punctuated with wry, slanted asides, Tell Me an Ending is one of the most sophisticated works of science fiction I’ve read recently. It’s full of tender portraits of people who aren’t inherently admirable or great—people who are bitter, jealous, anxious, taciturn—as they navigate the core question of who they are, with or without their memories. But there’s a deeper question, too, subtle as a pulse beneath each chapter’s skin: Where does memory live? Is it a node of synapses in the brain, or is it something more distributed—something in the stories we inherit, the stories we choose, the stories we choose to leave behind?” —Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

"Revelations regarding identity, grief, and secrets prove to be both liberating and devastating.” —Esquire

"As thought-provoking as it is suspenseful.” —CrimeReads

“A thrilling dystopian masterpiece. . . . unputdownable.” —The Daily Hive

“An intriguing debut. . . . Harkin boldly imagines an eerily plausible present and masterfully probes several characters. . . . a thrilling speculative novel." —Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"This high-concept debut asks an interesting question: What if we could edit our memories? . . . Harkin builds a picture of a world radically altered by a controversial technology and of people who are learning that you can’t change the past without impacting the present. An intellectually and emotionally satisfying thriller." —Booklist

"A richly imagined debut. Harkin keeps the plot tight and times her reveals effectively. It adds up to a smart speculative outing.” —Publishers Weekly

“Intriguing and compelling. . . . Interconnected storylines all arrive at the same conclusion: Messing with memory is messy business.” —Kirkus Reviews

“An Important novel. . . . Jo Harkin does a masterful job. . . . this mind-bending debut will certainly make you think.” —Book Reporter

"Clever and imaginative, Tell Me an Ending is a riveting and thought-provoking exploration of one of our most precious and fragile powers: the ability to remember the moments of our lives." —Karen Thompson Walker, author of The Dreamers

“An extraordinary novel—intelligent and searching, with deep questions about humanity, history and self. Expansive in its scope and themes, but never losing touch with its characters’ hearts and minds, Tell Me an Ending is gripping, inventive, and a memory I’ll never forget.” —Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters

"Whip-smart and thoughtful with a dark vein of humor. Compulsively readable. I loved it." —Christina Sweeney-Baird, author of The End of Men

"A twisting, electric debut exploring the potential for a life without our most painful or regretful memories. Tell Me an Ending examines the intersection of self and memory—when chosen memories can be removed—and how what we attempt to leave behind eventually catches up with us." —Meredith Westgate, author of The Shimmering State

"A cautionary tale about technology making its way into the very depths of our personal lives, Tell Me an Ending is thought-provoking and utterly compulsive." —Tahmima Anam, author of The Startup Wife

"Suspenseful, richly imagined, and brimming with compassion, Jo Harkin’s Tell Me an Ending poses tantalizing questions about technology, ethics, capitalism, memory, trauma, and fate. How far would we go to live a happier life? Who are we without the memories that have shaped us? A feat of ingenious, intricate world-building. I finished the last page desperate to discuss this brilliant novel with everyone I know." —Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers

From the Publisher

★ 06/01/2022

Harkin's debut novel is an ambitious piece of speculative fiction about the importance of memory, especially in a world where it's disposable. In an alternate present, the Nepenthe corporation discovers a way to remove unwanted or traumatic memories, even making sure some people don't remember requesting the deletion. When Nepenthe is forced to reveal to people that they had used the memory-deletion services, they give them the option to get that memory back, which creates all sorts of moral conundrums and strains on relationships. Harkin juggles multiple narratives, from a jealous husband who suspects his wife had memories of an affair deleted to a police officer suffering from PTSD. Tania Rodrigues gives this massive cast of characters their own unique voices, even as the number of characters threatens to balloon out of control. Luckily, Harkin ties all these different narratives together through Noor, a Nepenthe employee who suspects her boss Louise of having her own agenda. VERDICT A fine-tuned science fiction character study that explores such philosophical questions as how our memories, good and bad, affect who we are and how we relate to others.—James Gardner

Library Journal - Audio

10/01/2021

A psychologist at a London clinic that removes all those bad memories we don't want, Noor is worried. She has encountered several people—from Finn, who suspects his wife of infidelity, to Mei, puzzled that she recalls a city she has never visited, to Oscar, equally puzzled that he can't recall much at all—whose memories seem to have been tampered with unduly. Has Louise, the clinic's high-flying boss, gone over the edge? A high-flying debut, too, with a 175,000-copy first printing

Library Journal

2022-01-12
Five people are impacted by their connections to a memory-removal clinic in this debut novel.

In an alternate near present, a tech company called Nepenthe offers a memory erasure procedure straight out of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Nepenthe patients can elect whether to remain aware they had a memory erased or to forget it ever happened. When new research suggests memories might not be permanently erasable—that they may naturally regenerate—the phenomenon of memory “traces” rollicks Nepenthe with controversy, prompting the company to offer memory restorations. Noor, a doctor at the flagship Nepenthe clinic outside London, begins to mistrust her supervisor, Louise, after observing some shady behavior regarding restorations. The narrative follows four additional characters, each from a close third-person perspective: Mei, a young woman in Kuala Lumpur who believes she is experiencing traces; Finn, an architect in Arizona who suspects his wife erased the memory of an extramarital affair; Oscar, a man in Marrakech who barely has any memory of who he is; and William, an ex-cop in West Sussex who wants to remove a memory that is causing him PTSD. The premise is intriguing and becomes more compelling as it progresses (particularly pertaining to Louise’s psychology), but the story takes a while to pick up steam. The present-tense narration drifts around in time, heavy on abstract questions and light on descriptive scenes, making it tough to stay grounded in the action. Harkin frequently describes each characters’ confusion—“Louise, what have you done? / Why did you do it? / What’s next?” asks Noor, on three separate lines—but struggles to differentiate their voices in other meaningful ways. References to philosophers like Sartre, Hume, and Locke aim for cleverness and depth, hitting the mark as often as not.

Interconnected storylines all arrive at the same conclusion: Messing with memory is messy business.

Kirkus Reviews