I was unconscious. I'd stopped breathing. I don't know how long it lasted, but the engines and drivers that keep the human machine functioning at a mechanical level must have trip-switched, responding to the stillness with a general systems panic. Autopilot failure--switch to emergency manual override. This is how my life started, my second life. So begins The Raw Shark Texts, the startlingly original debut novel from Steven Hall that is already electrifying booksellers and publishers all over the world. Eric Sanderson wakes up one day with no idea who or where he is. A note instructs him to call a Dr. Randle, who informs him that he is undergoing yet another episode of memory loss and that for the last two years--since the tragic death of his great love, Clio, while vacationing in Greece--he's been suffering from an acute disassociative disorder. But there may be more to the story, or it may be a different story altogether. As Eric Sanderson begins to examine letters and papers left behind by "the first Eric Sanderson" and the staggering tale they seem to contain, he and the reader embark on a quest to recover the truth and to escape the predatory forces that threaten to devour him. Moving with the pace and momentum of a superb thriller, exploring ideas about language and information as well as identity, The Raw Shark Texts is a brilliant novel about the magnitude of love and the devastating effect of losing that love. It will dazzle you, it will move you, and it will leave an indelible imprint like nothing you have read in a long time.