You Lost Me There

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, You Lost Me There takes us inside the heart and mind of Dr. Victor Aaron, a leading Alzheimer's researcher at the Soborg Institute on Mount Desert Island in Maine.

Victor spends his days alternating between long hours in the sterile lab and running through memories of his late wife, Sara. He has preserved their marriage as a sort of perfect, if tumultuous, duet between two opposite but precisely compatible souls. But one day, in the midst of organizing his already hyperorganized life, Victor discovers a series of index cards covered in Sara's handwriting. They chronicle the major "changes in direction" of their marriage, written as part of a brief fling with couples counseling. Sara's version of their great love story is markedly different from his own, which, for the eminent memory specialist, is a startling revelation.

The New York Times Book Review (NYT Book Review Editors' Choice): “In fiction as in life, you can’t save people from themselves. Although that never keeps anyone from trying, as Rosecrans Baldwin’s amiable first novel demonstrates.”

National Public Radio (Best Books of the Year): "A stunning debut... You Lost Me There is, finally, a wise book, the kind that eludes many authors twice Baldwin's age... Profound, affecting, and true.”

The Washington Post: "Baldwin’s prose is wise and nimble, clever without being self-conscious, true to the myriad voices of his characters."

Lauren Groff, author of Fates and Furies: "Rosecrans Baldwin has written a gorgeously atmospheric novel about scientist Victor Aaron, who appears to be as craggy and cold as the Maine island where he lives. But Baldwin's storytelling grace is so delicate that the reader never doubts the deep emotional ache in this man of intellect, the joy that co-exists with his grief, or the underground river of love so deep it perversely paralyzes him. You Lost Me There is a smart, tender, and generous novel."

The Chicago Tribune: “Memory is a trickster, a scamp, a rogue. And, as Baldwin demonstrates in his novel, it can be a heartbreaker too.”

The Daily Beast: “A masterful study of love, loss, and self-discovery… Baldwin has truly found his footing in this book.”

Anthony Doerr, author of All the Light We Cannot See: "You Lost Me There is a wise, antic, and often hilarious novel about grief. And also about love and marriage, remembering and forgetting, neuroscience and Bruce Willis. It's full of knife-sharp dialogue and wonderful characters. This is a terrific debut that makes you yearn for the most unexpected things. I loved it."

The New York Observer: “In showing just how complicated memory can be, Baldwin elegantly explores how even the most analytic of minds can be flummoxed by human emotion.”

Largehearted Boy: “Witty, profound, and heartbreaking… Easily one of my favorite books of the year.”

The Los Angeles Times: “A mature look at relationships and memory.”

Wells Tower, author of Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned: "You Lost Me There is a work of lucid literary art, roisterous wit, and close, wry knowledge of the vexed circuits of the human mind and heart."

The Independent: “Closely and smoothly composed, alert all the way down to its synapses and axons, and comfortably, warmly readable.”

Paste Magazine: “The head’s tools in the landscape of the heart.”

The Virginia Free Lance-Star: “Immensely readable and fascinating.”

The Raleigh News & Observer: “Even skeptical readers can be won over by Baldwin’s assured take on the truth that - regardless of how old we are - we are all searching to be understood and loved.”

Newsday: “Grief is good in You Lost Me There.”

The Portland Press Herald: “Baldwin has managed to take big themes - the notion of a couple’s shared history and the skewed, fickle nature of memory - and cast them into a funny, sad, insightful narrative.”

Open Letters Monthly: “Explosively good… Baldwin’s story is an elegant double helix in the nature of The GoldBug Variations.”

Three Guys One Book: “It’s a bright moment for any reader of contemporary American literature when they discover a debut novel as self-assured, as well-disciplined, as You Lost Me There.”