Memoirs of a Stranger

Asha Shakes is a middle-aged woman with Caribbean heritage who is trying to "cure" herself of her culture. Her heritage and family history make her extraordinarily irrational and paranoid, with a firm belief in witchcraft. When these factors reach critical mass, she is committed to a mental institution, where she believes her race and culture are to blame. In the mental hospital, she refuses to speak to anyone—with the exception of one doctor: an African American woman she calls Dr. Gayle. When Gayle disappears and Dr. Knightly shows up, Asha is convinced he is an angel sent to help her. She opens up to him and recalls specific childhood memories triggered by everyday occurrences at the hospital. But when the sessions begin to force her to question the very foundations of her paranoia—and her life as a whole—the truth she uncovers will rock her to the very core of her existence.