LITERARY LOCAL | Wheaton Author's Novel Inspired by Her Mother's Health Ordeal

LAUREN MANSY, THE MEMORY THIEF

When Wheaton resident and author, Lauren Mansy, was a teenager, her mother was diagnosed with a heart condition, which led to an unexpected heart surgery. Her heart stopped six times on the way to the operating room, and the doctors warned her family that if she survived, it was very possible she may not remember them due to the trauma she’d experienced.

She did make a full recovery, but the collision of fear and then joy Lauren felt was what first sparked her idea for her novel, The Memory Thief. “I was struck by how memories make up so much of our identity and relationships with others,” says Lauren. “My mother’s unwavering courage to heal inspired me.”

The Memory Thief is a young adult fantasy novel set in Craewick, a city where memories are the currency. When her mother’s life is threatened, seventeen-year-old memory thief, Etta Lark, must return to the world of theft she left behind – the black market of memories – to complete the greatest heist of her life and save her comatose mother’s memories from the auction block.

“The memories of that time were hard to relive,” says Lauren, “but the writing of this story became huge source of healing for me as well.”

The Memory Thief can be found at all online retailers and in bookstores.

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