Circle Nine

When your whole life has vanished and only one person knows who you are . . . don't you have to believe him? Abby doesn't remember what happened the night she woke up in soot-stained clothes, lying next to a burning building with an unfamiliar boy at her side. But her connection with Sam is immediate and intense. And she has no one else: no family, no home, not even a last name. She and Sam start a new life, just the two of them, and Abby's deliriously happy. Until memories from her past begin to haunt her - and suddenly everything she's learned to love turns sinister. It's only a matter of time before her reality cracks apart.

Anne Heltzel earned an MFA in creative writing from the New School. She says of her debut novel: "I wrote Circle Nine shortly after moving to Mumbai, India, where I lived for a year and a half. It was a surreal and isolating experience at first, giving up my job and friends to move to a country I'd never seen before. Nevertheless, the magic of the city was ever-present; my reality had, in a sense, changed entirely. This all contributed to the creation of Sam." Anne Heltzel lives in Brooklyn, New York.