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Read of the month

Recursion

Blake Crouch

Macmillan, $35

The stakes are raised to fever pitch in this intense sci-fi thriller that dwells on memory and how it shapes our identity.

The story alternates between two characters in two time periods – NYPD detective Barry Sutton in 2018 and neuroscientist Helena Smith in 2007 – and it begins with Barry, who is doing his best to talk a woman away from the edge of a building.

Before leaping to her death, she tells him she’s suffering from False Memory Syndrome – a frightening condition in which individuals have