We Came Here to Forget
From the author of She Regrets Nothing, which BuzzFeed called a “sharp, glittering story of wealth, family, and fate,” comes a vivid novel about a young Olympic skier who loses everything and escapes to Buenos Aires, where she reinvents herself, meets a colorful group of ex-pats, and becomes enmeshed with a man keeping dark secrets of his own.
Katie Cleary has always known exactly what she wants: to be the best skier in the world. As a teenager, she leaves her home to live and train full time with her two best friends, all-American brothers Luke and Blair, whose wealthy father has hired the best coaches money can buy. Together, they are the USA’s best shot at bringing home Olympic gold.
But as the upward trajectory of Katie’s elite skiing career nears its zenith, a terrifying truth about her sister becomes impossible to ignore—one that will lay ruin not only to Katie’s career but to her family and her relationship with Luke and Blair.
With her life shattered and nothing left to lose, Katie flees the snowy mountainsides of home for Buenos Aires. There, she reinvents herself as Liz Sullivan, and meets a colorful group of ex-pats and the alluring, charismatic Gianluca Fortunado, a tango teacher with secrets of his own. This beautiful city, with its dark history and wild promise, seems like the perfect refuge, but can she really outrun her demons?
In alternating chapters, Katie grows up, falls in love, and races down the highest peaks on the planet—while Liz is reborn, falls into lust, and sinks into the underground tango scene at the bottom of the world. From the moneyed ski chalets of the American West to the dimly lit milongas of Argentina, We Came Here to Forget explores what it means to dream, to desire, to achieve—and what’s left behind after it all disappears.
Available July 2, 2019
Editorial Reviews
Searing, gripping…Dunlop has crafted a complicated story of sisterhood unlike any told before.
Andrea Dunlop’s novels were made for book clubs. This one is a gripping story of family secrets and dangerous ambition that follows Katie Cleary, an Olympic hopeful who tries to live under a new identity when her career is ruined after dark truths about her sister come to light.
Dunlop’s globe-trotting story of two sisters driven apart by a devastating event is a propulsive whirlwind of secrets, passion, betrayal, exotic locations — and hope. It’s as timely as it is riveting.
As fast-paced as a downhill ski run, and as magical and sensuous as tango, We Came Here to Forget is about the drive to escape the trauma of the past—and the folly of that desire.
I wish Andrea Dunlop’s We Came Here to Forget could go on forever. I was riveted by the central story of an overachieving athlete who is finding her way in a world without clocks, without concrete goals. Andrea is a talented, intuitive leader and storyteller, revealing details at just the right moment over and over again. There is so much genuine emotion and tension throughout the book . . . a lot to think about in here, and oh yes—a lot of dancing in paradise (and in hell) too.