The Strange Case of Jane O.

A Novel

By: Karen Thompson Walker

Narrated by: Jay Myers, Alex Sarrigeorgiou

In this spellbinding and provocative novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Age of Miracles, a young mother is struck by sudden and puzzling psychological symptoms that illuminate the mysterious dimensions of the human mind—and of love.

A Belletrist Book Club Pick

A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations, and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue; when she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her.

Are Jane’s strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died twenty years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality—including events in his own life.

Karen Thompson Walker’s profound and beautifully written novel is both a speculative mystery about memory, identity, and fate and a mesmerizing literary puzzle about the bonds of love—between mother and child, between a man and a woman, and among those we’ve lost but who may still be among us.

Great story, pacing, and characters

I loved this book! The story is a mystery and the truth behind Jane O is just as interesting as the mystery itself. Excellently read by two actors so that the two perspectives were easy to relate to. Highly recommend.

Compelling psychological mystery

This story was riveting and nuanced and went in ways that I did not except! I highly recommend this book.

A spellbinding page-turner

This is a spellbinding story about a young woman with a fascinating and elusive mental health diagnosis. The story is told through a journal written by Jane, with the purpose of showing it to her infant son when he is older; and a journal written by Jane's psychiatrist as he puzzles over one enigma after another in her symptoms and behavior. Gradually, he begins to suspect that Jane, who has evidenced a comprehensive photographic memory, might have conveniently (or unwittingly?) omitted certain memories from her revelations during psychotherapy. This story is such a graphic account of a variety of mental health conditions and psychiatric interventions that it is difficult to imagine that the author is not a mental health professional herself. However, a brief review of her biography indicates no mental health training of any kind. A masterful, amazing and gripping book!

Beautiful, Bittersweet and Excellently Written

The writing is superb. Even if I hadn’t loved the story, I would have enjoyed the writing. Very thoughtful character development, although all their parts are sprinkled in from beginning to end. Highly Recommend.

You’ll think about this long after you finish

Unlike anything I’ve ever read, such an original story, the way it’s told and the way it’s written will keep bringing you back to it again and again after you finish. It took a few chapters for me to really get hooked but then I couldn’t stop until I finished! I’d give it 10 stars if I could.