• Meredith Westgate, Schools of Public Engagement '15

    Lucien moves to Los Angeles to be with his grandmother as she undergoes an experimental treatment for Alzheimer's using a new drug, Memoroxin. An emerging photographer, he's also dealing with the sudden death of his mother, a well-known artist whose legacy haunts him.

    Sophie has just landed the lead in the upcoming performance of La Sylphide with the Los Angeles Ballet. During her off hours, she still waitresses at the Chateau Marmont, where she witnesses the recreational use of Memoroxin, or Mem, by the Hollywood elite.

    When Lucien and Sophie meet at the center, founded to treat patients who have abused Mem, they have no idea how they got there—or why they feel so strongly drawn to each other. Is it attraction, or something they cannot remember from before?

    Set in a city that seems to have no memory of its own, The Shimmering State is a graceful meditation on the power of story and its creation. It masterfully explores memory and the ways it can elude us, trap us, and even set us free.

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  • The book cover of The Shimmering State, by Meredith Westgate
    Fiction

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