It's like Riding a Bicycle
We’ve all got our strengths and weaknesses. What is your most highly honed skill? If you were to perform in a talent show or enter a contest, what would you want to do to stand the best chance of winning? Many of us can think of skills we are the best at among our family, co-workers, or friend group, but the larger the sample size, the smaller the number of skills at which we are the best. People know the names Bobby Fischer, Jimi Hendrix, Serena Williams, and Emily Dickinson not because they had a nicely diversified skill set (even though they very likely did) but rather because they are known for doing one particular thing remarkably well. Certainly, spending time honing a skill to this extent would likely lead an individual to associate a great deal of their own identity with that skill. Now imagine what it would feel like to be the best at something and then wake up one day to realize that you no longer had command of that ability.
This is precisely the fate that befalls young Fabio in Alejandra Algorta’s stunning debut novel, Neverforgotten. Fabio is the fastest and most skilled cyclist in Bogotá. When flying through the streets, he feels pure freedom and vitality in life. In all other ways, he is a very average and ordinary boy, so when his mind and body mysteriously forget his one great skill, he is left bereft and shaken. He thinks back to when he first learned to ride, overcoming seemingly insurmountable fear and uncertainty. Can he do that again, or is he destined to remain completely average and ordinary with no outlet to set him apart and make him feel truly alive?
Accompanied by Iván Rickenmann’s stunning illustrations, Fabio’s story is a stunning coming-of-age journey. Neverforgotten was an Indies Introduce title when it was released in hardcover in 2021, as well as being an Indie Next list tile and a New York Times and New York Public Library Best Book of the Year.
A Kirkus starred review called it “an unmissable tale of loss and reclamation,” and in her review of the book in the New York Times, Pam Muñoz Ryan called it “a transformative, noteworthy debut. A philosophical read, begging discussion and interpretation.”
Read it in both English & Spanish editions
Available wherever books ar sold.
Neverforgotten / Nuncaseolvida I 9781646142040 / 9781646142507 I $9.99 I Paperback