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We Came Here to Forget

A Novel

About The Book

From the author of She Regrets Nothing, which BuzzFeed called a “sharp, glittering story of wealth, family, and fate,” a vivid novel about a young Olympic skier who loses everything and reinvents herself in Buenos Aires, where she meets 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, brothers Luke and Blair. Their wealthy father hires the best coaches money can buy and after years of training, the three friends 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 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?

“Searing, gripping…a complicated story of sisterhood unlike any told before” (Taylor Jenkins Reid, author of Daisy Jones & The Six), We Came Here to Forget explores what it means to dream, to desire, to achieve—and what’s left behind after it all disappears.

About The Author

Photograph by Matthew Land

Andrea Dunlop is the author of We Came Here to Forget, She Regrets Nothing, Losing the Light, and Broken Bay. She lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, where she works as a social media consultant.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (July 2, 2019)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781982103446

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Raves and Reviews

Praise for We Came Here to Forget

“Searing, gripping…Dunlop has crafted a complicated story of sisterhood unlike any told before.”

– Taylor Jenkins Reid, bestselling author of Daisy Jones and the Six

"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."

– J. Ryan Stradal, author of Kitchens of the Great Midwest

"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."

– Caroline Kepnes, author of You

“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.”

– Bustle

“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.”

– Edan Lepucki, bestselling author of CALIFORNIA and WOMAN NO. 17

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More books from this author: Andrea Dunlop