Stefan Merrill Block Books

Fifteen-year-old Seth Waller is devastated when his mother is diagnosed with a rare, early-onset form of Alzheimer's. When he was growing up, his mother always brushed aside questions about her past and family, and Seth realises that soon he will lose his chance to find out any more. He decides to uncover the truth about her life, their family history and the condition, and what he discovers is more surprising than he ever could have imagined. Inspired partly by Stefan Merrill Block's own family history, The Story of Forgetting is a moving and inspiring novel of love, loss, hope and genetic destiny.

A school shooting in a Texan border town leaves a family in crisis, a community torn apart, and the boy who holds the secret cocooned in a coma for ten years.

Even after two decades of volatile marriage, Katharine Merrill still remembers when her husband, Frederick, was attentive, witty, and charming. Frederick’s behaviors and moods have since darkened, and Katharine has tried to keep up appearances, hoping for the best. But in the summer of 1962, when a cocktail party ends with her husband in handcuffs, Katharine makes a fateful decision: She commits Frederick to Mayflower Home, America’s most revered mental asylum, repository for great poets, intellectuals, and madmen. While Frederick attempts to transform his incarceration into a creative exercise, Katharine struggles to raise four young daughters—and find her way back to her husband through her own ambiguities, delusions, and the damages done by her belief in a life she no longer lives. Inspired by elements of the lives of the author’s grandparents, this mesmerizing love story shifts through time and reaches across generations. Along the way, Stefan Merrill Block illuminates an age-old truth: even if one’s daily life appears ordinary, one can still wage a silent, secret, extraordinary war. Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more.