My Memories of a Future Life

'Genius story ... characters you won't want to leave behind … full of suspense and enigma'

If your life might be another person's past... What do they know of you?
Could they have the answers you need now?

Carol is a gifted pianist who has never needed anything but her talent – until an untreatable injury stops her playing. Terrified that it might end her career, she moves to a village on the coast to convalesce and teach singing. She becomes beguiled by glimpses of her next life – a healer called Andreq. Is he really what he seems to be? Does his life have any clues that can help her now?

A duet between land and sea, past and future, trance and waking, My Memories of a Future Life shimmers with mystery and questions. It’s a novel about clairvoyants and charlatans, the all-consuming dedication of the professional musician, the shadows that shape us, the yearning for a soul-mate, the tyranny of small towns, and what we do when we lose the thing that gives us our identity.

'A first-class page turner.'

‘Reminded me of Doris Lessing--though at the risk of committing a sacrilege, Morris is much more readable.’

‘I was entirely engaged and convinced... echoes of Atwood's 'Blind Assassin'.

‘Distinct voice reminded me of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.’

‘Intriguing like Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black, which also explores the murky lives of charlatans.’

‘I was reminded of Iain Banks; London is artfully drawn, a gritty, grave place, where to step off the treadmill can leave one quickly on the outside.’

‘Reminded me of The Time Traveller's wife; the imagery is strong and it has layers of story within a story.’

‘Gave me the creepy feeling of Rosemary's Baby or the Wicker Man’

‘Like John Fowles's The Magus ... an unsettling plot with hints of more beyond'

‘I have had to wrestle with monsters of professional jealousy to review this book. It is SO good.’

‘Excellent. Will probably read it again soon.’

'I was always fascinated by tales of regression to past lives,' says the author Roz Morris. ‘I thought, what if instead of going to the past, someone went to a future life? Who would do that? Why? What would they find?

‘Another longtime interest was the world of the classical musician. Musical scores are exacting and dictatorial - you play a note for perhaps a sixth of a second and not only that, there are instructions for how to feel - expressivo, amoroso. It's as if you don't play a piece of classical music; you channel the spirit of the composer.

‘I became fascinated by a character who routinely opened her entire soul to the most emotional communications of classical composers. And I thought, what if she couldn’t do it any more? And then, what if I threw her together with someone who could trap the part of her that responded so completely to music?’

Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. She is now writing acclaimed fiction under her own name. She is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. She teaches creative writing masterclasses for The Guardian newspaper in London.

'Totally absorbing... a really involving novel, with exciting twists and turns, as well as giving plenty of food for thought. I really recommend this and look forward to reading more by Roz Morris.' - Mandy Lowe

'This has to be one of the strangest books I've ever read. And at the same time, one of the best. It is extraordinarily well written with the perfect blend of description, dialogue and action. An incredible five-star read' - SM Spencer

'Immersive, haunting, thought-provoking. It's also a hard book to write about. Best comparison I could think of would be Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland, although this book uses its double narrative in a more straightforward fashion (which personally I appreciate). A creepy English town. . . a musician's obsession with her craft and instrument. . . various disparate themes that weave together beautifully.' - Tom C