cover image The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science—A Memoir

The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science—A Memoir

Jill Price, with Bart Davis. . Free Press, $22.95 (263pp) ISBN 978-1-4165-6176-7

Jill Price outs herself as the scientific phenomena known as “AJ.”

The Woman Who Can't Forget: The Extraordinary Story of Living with the Most Remarkable Memory Known to Science—A Memoir Jill Price with Bart Davis. Free Press , $22.95 (256p) ISBN 978-1-4165-6176-7

Price has been known to scientists only as “AJ,” a woman with a memory so unprecedented they had to coin a term for it: “hyperthymestic syndrome.”With this book, she is coming out publicly for the first time to discuss her condition. Not only is Price powerless to stop remembering, but each memory brings with it an emotion “every bit as potent as it was the first day I had it.” That means constantly reliving not just the good times—hanging out at the Ed Sullivan Show with her father, a William Morris agent, or having her cheeks pinched by Milton Berle—but the painful times as well. Tormented by her total recall, at age 34 Price contacted memory expert James McGaugh and finally began the process of controlling her memory. Not all the details of Price's life are so compelling, but her insights into the nature of memory, forgetting and the formation of our sense of self will resonate with a wide audience. Appearances on 20/20 May 9 and Good Morning America May 12. (May 6)