The Strange Case of Jane O.

By Karen Thompson Walker

Book Overview

In this spellbinding and provocative novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Miracles, a young mother is struck by sudden and puzzling psychological symptoms that illuminate the mysterious dimensions of the human mind--and of love.

A Belletrist Book Club Pick

A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn's Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her.

Are Jane's strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane's symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality--including events in his own life.

Karen Thompson Walker's profound and beautifully written novel is both a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate and a mesmerizing literary puzzle about the bonds of love--between mother and child, between a man and a woman, and among those we've lost but who may still be among us.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1984853945
• ISBN13: 9781984853943
• Release Date: February 2025
• Publisher: Random House
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

3.75 stars

THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. by Karen Thompson Walker This reads like a therapist’s clinical case notes about a patient experiencing hallucinations, and extended blackout periods (dissociative fugue or fugue state). At first, Dr. Henry Byrd is detached and unemotional towards Jane, but as her blackout episodes intensify, and her memories become uncanny, he starts to question his own reality. Reading this had ME questioning Jane’s journal entries/memories, and Dr. Byrd’s sanity throughout the story. Gotta love unreliable characters! This book explores themes of psychological trauma, mental health and motherhood, with a bit of science fiction thrown in. If you’ve ever found yourself going down an internet rabbit hole about glitches in the matrix or the existence of the multiverse, you’ll probably enjoy this book. Rating: 3.75/5 ⭐️