James Scudamore — The Amnesia Clinic

Vintage 2007 Paperback, 275pp. Anti, a quiet English boy living in Quito, Ecuador, strikes up a friendship with flamboyant classmate Fabian, who is everything Ani isn't: handsome, athletic and popular. What's more, he lives with his rakish Uncle Suarez, while Anti is stuck in the dull ex-pat world inhabited by his parents. Suarez, a storyteller par excellence, infects the boys with his passion for outlandish tales, and before long their relationship becomes one conducted entirely through the telling of tales. One subject, however is taboo: Fabian's parents. But when details surrounding their disapperance begin to emerge, Anti decides to console his friend with a story suggesting that Fabian's mother may be living at a bizarre hospital on the coast for patients with memory loss. With confused emotions and reality losint it's grip, the boys embard on a quixotic voyage across Ecuador in search of an 'Amnesia Clinic' that may, or may not exist. (ISBN: 9780099494225). Very Good.