My Name Was Eden

A HarperNorth lead debut for 2024, this high-concept book-club thriller is inspired by the author’s own experience of Vanishing Twin Syndrome

When Eden came home from the hospital we couldn’t believe our luck. No apparent brain damage, no serious injuries, not even a scratch on her. We had our daughter back, and I had a second chance at being the good mum I should have been before her accident – or so we thought.

Until she told us that Eden wasn’t her name. Until she started calling herself Eli. The name I’d reserved for her unborn twin.

Don’t worry, says Doctor Oke. Stop fussing, says my husband. Eden is completely fine. Of course I’m fine, she says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here.

But I know something’s very wrong with Eden. She’s not my infuriating, complicated teenage girl anymore – this straight-backed, even tempered, steady-eyed child in my house is someone else entirely. Could it be that we lose some people for a reason – and what happens if one such person comes back?