The Man Without a Shadow

The Man Without a Shadow
Joyce Carol Oates

From bestselling author Joyce Carol Oates, a taut and fascinating novel that examines the mysteries of human memory and personalityIn 1965, a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes, the subject of her study, a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the last seventy seconds. Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirroring journeys of self-discovery. Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli’s shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of identity in the process. And Eli, haunted by memories of an unknown girl’s body underneath the surface of a lake, pushes to finally know himself once again, despite potentially devastating consequences. As Margot and Eli meet over and over again, Joyce Carol Oates’ tightly written, nearly clinical prose propels the lives of these two characters forwards, both suspended in a dream-like, shadowy present, and seemingly balanced on the thinnest, sharpest of lines between past and future. Made vivid by Oates’ eye for detail and searing insight into the human psyche, The Man Without a Shadow is an eerie, ambitious, and structurally complex novel, as poignant as it is thrilling.

Copyright (#ulink_385d2460-6b6d-5e2e-a119-ba546ec8ac76)

4th Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.4thestate.co.uk (http://www.4thestate.co.uk)

This eBook first published in Great Britain by 4th Estate in 2016

First published in the United States by Ecco in 2016

Copyright © 2016 by The Ontario Review, Inc.

Cover photographs © Stephen Carroll / Trevillion Images

Joyce Carol Oates asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008165383

Ebook Edition © January 2016 ISBN: 9780008165406

Version: 2016-12-21

Dedication (#ulink_e55418b6-1bb7-59db-b5f7-5f512ca00d55)

TO MY HUSBAND CHARLIE GROSS,

MY FIRST READER

Epigraph (#ulink_c6b31766-6c1f-5caa-b64d-36c6341780c1)

The annihilation is not the terror.

The journey is the terror.

–ELIHU HOOPES

Contents

Cover (#u744033f3-9660-5711-851a-3a2990e28aa2)

Title Page (#u4fb1cad9-da14-537a-9814-21b2c8701194)

Copyright (#u72bdb94c-3e05-5467-bac0-3b2eec56d8a0)

Dedication (#u6db9954a-50c8-55d6-aa4d-bbaffe834a5f)

Epigraph (#u563d23d7-cf25-5da1-b49f-8222a5f274bf)

Chapter One (#u5a85b324-adf0-520e-a7d1-9b9ce234c0a9)

Chapter Two (#u9a205312-f20b-591c-85da-7f91d8e289c8)

Chapter Three (#u7c1e8132-5e76-55de-8a1f-4948dad79767)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgments (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading … (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Novels by Joyce Carol Oates (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_9507be46-f4bd-58cc-9f78-35b156c73a6d)

NOTES ON AMNESIA: PROJECT “E.H.” (1965–1996)