You Know What You Did
A Novel
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4.2 • 10 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this heart-pounding debut thriller for fans of Lisa Jewell and Celeste Ng, a first-generation Vietnamese American artist must confront nightmares past and present. . . .
Annie “Anh Le” Shaw grew up poor, but seems to have it all now: a dream career, a stunning home, and a devoted husband and daughter. When Annie’s mother, a Vietnam War refugee, dies suddenly one night, Annie’s carefully curated life begins to unravel. Her obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she thought she’d vanquished years ago, comes roaring back—but this time, the disturbing fixations swirling around in Annie’s brain might actually be coming true.
A prominent art patron disappears, and the investigation zeroes in on Annie. Spiraling with self-doubt, she distances herself from her family and friends, only to wake up in a hotel room—naked, next to a lifeless body. The police have more questions, but with her mind increasingly fractured, Annie doesn’t have answers. All she knows is this: She will do anything to protect her daughter—even if it means losing herself.
With dizzying twists, You Know What You Did is both a harrowing thriller and a heartfelt exploration of the refugee experience, the legacies we leave for our children, and the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A visual artist unravels after the death of her mother in Nguyen's exhilarating debut. Painter Annie Shaw appears to be living the American dream with her renowned journalist husband, Duncan, and daughter, Tabitha, in the Virginia countryside. The facade starts to crack when Annie discovers her elderly Vietnamese refugee mother's dead body among her hoarded goods in Annie's carriage house. In the weeks that follow, the emotionally fragile Annie gradually loses her grip on reality. Medication that once kept her obsessive-compulsive disorder under control proves no match for her spiraling thoughts, and she starts to see vengeful visions of her mother's ghost, who torments Annie with the horrors she experienced during the Vietnam War. Meanwhile, the ever-supportive Duncan is put to the test when Annie first becomes a suspect in the death of her art patron, Byrdie Fenton, then turns up at the scene of another murder with no memory of how she arrived there. Might she be unconsciously enacting the violent, compulsive thoughts that plague her? Braiding together hair-raising psychological suspense and poignant study of war's intergenerational trauma, Nguyen adds depth to the familiar setup of the unreliable, mentally ill heroine. Lisa Unger and Tess Gerritsen fans, take note.
