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Back You Will Remember Me Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. Cover
  2. About the Author
  3. Praise
  4. Booklist
  5. Dedication
  6. Epigraph
  7. 1
  8. 2
  9. 3
  10. 4
  11. 5
  12. 6
  13. 7
  14. 8
  15. 9
  16. 10
  17. 11
  18. 12
  19. 13
  20. 14
  21. 15
  22. 16
  23. 17
  24. 18
  25. 19
  26. 20
  27. 21
  28. 22
  29. 23
  30. 24
  31. 25
  32. 26
  33. 27
  34. 28
  35. 29
  36. 30
  37. 31
  38. 32
  39. 33
  40. 34
  41. 35
  42. 36
  43. EPILOGUE
  44. ACKNOWLEGMENTS
  45. Reader Guide
  46. Questions For Discussion
  47. A Conversation With Hannah Mary Mckinnon
  48. Excerpt

A Conversation With Hannah Mary Mckinnon

A Conversation with
Hannah Mary McKinnon

This is your fifth novel. What was your inspiration for You Will Remember Me?

A few years ago, a man from Toronto vanished from a ski hill in Lake Placid while there on vacation and showed up six days later in Sacramento. He had amnesia and couldn’t remember much, including the cross-country trip he’d made as he’d hitchhiked across the US. Everything worked out for the man in the end and he found his way home, but it made me wonder—what could have gone wrong? That was the genesis for You Will Remember Me. A while later I had a vivid image in my head—a man waking up on a deserted beach without any recollection of who he was, or what he was doing there. I kept coming back to his story, how he’d arrived on that beach, what he’d do, and how much danger he was in. As I noodled the plot around, I wondered what might happen if he found his way home but had no idea he’d actually left the town years before, and unknowingly walked back into the dragon’s den. That was it. I needed to know what happened next, and if he’d survive.

You have three point-of-view characters. Which one did you have the most fun writing?

Can I say all of them? Lily was great because she was determined to be a good person and put her past behind her. All she wanted was happiness and stability. Maya was deliciously evil, probably my darkest character yet, and it was incredibly interesting to spend so much time thinking about why she’d become the way she was, and how she could so easily rationalize her despicable actions. Honestly, she gave me the shivers. Ash was the most challenging character because I didn’t appreciate how difficult it is to write someone with amnesia. They can’t have memories or flashbacks, yet you don’t want scene after scene of them being told their history because it would make for tedious reading. That in itself was a great challenge and really stretched me as an author.

Do you have a favorite chapter or scene?

Oh, my goodness, the ending with the final scene between Ash and Maya, when we discover just how far off the rails she’s gone. It’s twisted and creepy, and I’ll admit to cackling a little as I wrote it (also creepy). This novel allowed me to go even further to the dark side, and explore what people might do, and how they’d justify it to themselves, all in the name of love.

About those dark themes... What draws you to them?