Quick answer
The closest match is Forever Today, Deborah Wearing’s memoir of life with her husband Clive after an illness erased his memory. Next is Educated, Tara Westover’s memoir of a childhood her family remembers differently, and for twins bound by a private world, Marjorie Wallace’s The Silent Twins. The list also includes a book that challenges how memory and abuse are discussed.
8 books to read after Tell Me Who I Am
Forever Today: A Memoir of Love and AmnesiaClosest match
In March 1985 the musician Clive Wearing contracted herpes simplex encephalitis, which left him with severe amnesia and a memory for events that lasts only seconds. His wife, Deborah, tells the story of their marriage before and after.
Why read itLike the Lewis twins’ book, it is written by the person closest to someone who has lost his past, and it shows how that person becomes the keeper of the shared story.
EducatedClosest match
Westover grew up in a survivalist Mormon family in Idaho with no formal schooling, entered university at 17 and later earned a PhD at Cambridge. Her parents dispute her account and her mother later published her own version, Educating.
Why read itBoth books turn on a childhood remembered differently by different members of the same family, and on the cost of naming abuse inside it.
RecommendedRead my full book recommendation for Educated →
The Silent Twins
The Sunday Times journalist Marjorie Wallace tells the story of June and Jennifer Gibbons, twins from Haverfordwest in Wales who spoke almost only to each other and spent eleven years in Broadmoor Hospital. Jennifer died in 1993. The book was filmed in 2022 with Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance.
Why read itAnother pair of British twins whose bond was both their protection and their prison, told with close attention to what each one knew of the other.
The Twin
Helmer farms in the Netherlands with his dying father, decades after his twin brother Henk was killed in an accident. When Henk’s former girlfriend and her teenage son arrive, Helmer starts to reckon with the life he never chose. David Colmer’s translation won the 2010 International Dublin Literary Award.
Why read itA novel about a twin living in the shadow of a brother and a father, and about the silences a family keeps for decades.
The Vanishing Half
Identical twins Desiree and Stella Vignes run away from their small Louisiana town at 16. Stella goes on to pass as white and hides her past from her husband and daughter, while Desiree returns home. It was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.
Why read itIt is fiction about one twin holding back the truth from the people closest to her, and what that secret does over a lifetime.
Still Alice
Alice Howland, a 50-year-old linguistics professor, is diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. Genova, a neuroscientist, tells the story from inside Alice’s mind as her memory fails. Julianne Moore won the Academy Award for Best Actress for the 2014 film.
Why read itIt shows the loss of memory from the inside, the side of the story Alex Lewis lived through, and the way a family has to fill the gaps.
The Myth of Repressed Memory
The psychologist Elizabeth Loftus and the writer Katherine Ketcham argue that many ‘recovered’ memories of childhood sexual abuse were suggested by therapists, drawing on her false-memory experiments and on real cases. Critics warned it could lead to genuine victims being disbelieved, and Loftus’s work as an expert witness for defendants remains controversial.
Why read itIt complicates any story built on memory and abuse: it is a reminder that memories can be shaped by the people who supply them, which is the position Marcus held for his brother.
Frequently asked questions about books like Tell Me Who I Am
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