My Memories of a Future Life

'Genius premise ... characters you won't want to leave behind'


A suspenseful story in the vein of Life After Life. Carol is a gifted pianist who has never needed anything but her talent – until a mysterious injury forces her to stop playing and she has to confront an empty existence. She begins to see glimpses of her next life, Andreq. Is he really what he seems to be? And can he help Carol learn to live her life now?


"Reminded me of The End of Mr. Y and Our Tragic Universe, by Scarlett Thomas (one of my Top Shelf Authors = I Want To Write Like That When I Grow Up.)'


"Reminded me of Doris Lessing--though at the risk of committing a sacrilege, Morris is much more readable.'


"The ideas are fresh, the plot unpredictable and the characters interesting; I was entirely engaged and convinced. I also liked the writing very much, with its story within a story having echoes of Atwood's 'Blind Assassin'.


"Distinct voice reminded me of Atwood's Handmaid's Tale.'


"Having read Hilary Mantel's Beyond Black, which also explores the murky lives of charlatans, I was intrigued by the subject matter. What I got was a first class page-turner.'


"I was reminded of Iain Banks; London is artfully drawn, a gritty, grave place, where to step off the treadmill can leave one quickly on the outside.'


"Reminded me at first of The Time Traveller's wife; the imagery is strong and it has layers of story within a story. However it grew into something quite different.'


"Gave me the creepy feeling of Rosemary's Baby or the Wicker Man'


"Like John Fowles's The Magus ... the sort of literature I enjoy reading, combining an unsettling plot with hints of more beyond. It's not the depressing realism of your typical Booker novelist or the light fluffiness of a slice of middle class city life.'


"I have had to wrestle with monsters of professional jealousy to review this book. It is SO good.'


"Reminds me of the canny cultural observations of Barbara Pym or Penelope Fitzgerald. Prepare to be surprised, mystified, and sorry it ends.'


"Not easily categorised. Should I call it a literary novel? Science Fiction? Romance? You could make a case for any one.'


"Excellent. Will probably read it again soon.'


If your life was another person's past...


What echoes do you leave in their soul?

Could they be the answers you need now?


Carol is a professional pianist who is forced by injury to rest. She'll give anything to play again but medicine has run out of answers. When a close friend is cured of panic attacks by apparently remembering a past life, Carol is unwillingly drawn to try hypnosis – but she doesn't believe in reincarnation so she asks to be taken to the future, her next life. Is she really experiencing her future self or just a psychological creation? And can it give her the answers she desperately needs?


A novel in the tradition of The Time Traveller's Wife, Vertigo and The Gargoyle, My Memories of a Future Life is much more than a 'who was I' tale. It is a multi-layered story of souls on conjoined journeys – in real time and across the centuries. It's a provocative study of the shadows we don't know are driving our lives, from our own pasts and from the people with us right now. An examination of what we believe, what we create and how we scare and heal each other. Above all, it's the story of how one lost soul must search for where she now belongs.





'I was always fascinated by tales of regression to past lives,' says the author Roz Morris. "I thought, what if instead of going to the past, someone went to a future life? Who would do that? Why? What would they find?





"Another longtime interest was the world of the classical musician. Musical scores are exacting and dictatorial - you play a note for perhaps a sixth of a second and not only that, there are instructions for how to feel - expressivo, amoroso. It's as if you don't play a piece of classical music; you channel the spirit of the composer.


"I became fascinated by a character who routinely opened her entire soul to the most emotional communications of classical composers. And I thought, what if she couldn't do it any more? And then, what if I threw her together with someone who could trap the part of her that responded so completely to music?'


Roz Morris's fiction has sold more than 4 million copies worldwide, although you won't have seen her name on the covers as she ghostwrote for high-profile authors. She is now writing acclaimed fiction under her own name. She is a writer, journalist, fiction editor and the author of the Nail Your Novel series for writers. She teaches creative writing masterclasses for The Guardian newspaper in London.


'Totally absorbing... a really involving novel, with some fascinating and exciting twists and turns, as well as giving plenty of food for thought. I really recommend this and look forward to reading more by Roz Morris.' - Mandy Lowe


'This has to be one of the strangest books I've ever read. And at the same time, one of the best. It is extraordinarily well written with the perfect blend of description, dialogue and action. An incredible five-star read' - SM Spencer


'Immersive, haunting, thought-provoking. It's also a hard book to write about. Best comparison I could think of would be Murakami's Hard-Boiled Wonderland, although this book uses its double narrative in a more straightforward fashion (which personally I appreciate). In some ways the book follows the tropes of the supernatural romance and you expect a sparkly vampire to spring up, but then the book goes another direction entirely. . . there's also a creepy English town with an Innsmouth atmosphere. . . a musician's obsession with her craft and instrument. . . various disparate themes that weave together beautifully.' - Tom C