First ARC of 2018

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman

I am fortunate enough to periodically have the opportunity to try to score an advance reader's copy of upcoming books. I try my luck nearly every time I get an email about them, and am not successful a lot of the time. This is ok because there are a lot of books out there, and nine times out of ten, if I am not selected for the ARC, I will still end up reading the book. A few weeks ago, this Gayle Forman book popped up as one we could try our luck with. This time though, I had enough points to guarantee a copy for myself, and since I have liked every book of hers I have read, I knew I needed to get this one.

This is a story about three people who have, quite literally, lost their way. Up first is Freya. Freya is a singer on the verge of making it big. Unfortunately, some three weeks prior, she has lost the ability to sing. This is a bit of a problem as she was born singing. It was the one thing she had with her father who left her to go start a new life in his homeland of Ethiopia. It is what cost her any sort of relationship with her sister, which is how she finds herself falling off of a bridge in Central Park.

Then there is Harun, a young Muslim man who is living a lie to keep from disappointing his parents. Harun is gay and his boyfriend recently broke up with him because Harun won't come out to his family. On this particular day, he heads to Central Park in the hopes of running into his boyfriend and show him that he is willing to do what it takes to be with him when he sees a young woman falling off of a bridge.

Last there is Nathaniel. He is a young man from Washington state. His parents are divorced because his mother said she couldn't live with two children, the implication, and rightly so, that her husband was a child. Nathaniel has two different colored eyes as a result of an accident, and something has happened that has turned him into something feral (his words, not mine). Freya lands on Nathaniel when she falls off of the bridge.

This accident is what brings the three of them together, and together they begin to find their way.

Like Forman's other books, her characters are complex and she provides a backstory that helps the reader understand why they are the way they are. In this case, it helps to show how they lost their way, so that when they get back on track it all blends together.