Friday Memes: The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner

Book Beginnings is hosted by Rose City Reader and Friday 56 is hosted by Freda's Voice.

The Memory of Things by Gae Polisner. 279 p. St. Martin's Press, September, 2016. 9781250095527.

Publisher synopsis: On the morning of September 11, 2001, sixteen-year-old Kyle Donohue watches the first twin tower come down from the window of Stuyvesant High School. Moments later, terrified and fleeing home to safety across the Brooklyn Bridge, he stumbles across a girl perched in the shadows, covered in ash, and wearing a pair of costume wings. With his mother and sister in California and unable to reach his father, a NYC detective likely on his way to the disaster, Kyle makes the split-second decision to bring the girl home. What follows is their story, told in alternating points of view, as Kyle tries to unravel the mystery of the girl so he can return her to her family. But what if the girl has forgotten everything, even her own name? And what if the more Kyle gets to know her, the less he wants her to go home? The Memory of Things tells a stunning story of friendship and first love and of carrying on with our day-to-day living in the midst of world-changing tragedy and unforgettable pain—it tells a story of hope.

First Line: I move with the crowd, away from downtown Manhattan.

Page 56: And, suddenly, I'm glad the girl is here. Someone else, at least, who can walk and talk and hang out with me, while I wait for the phone to ring.