The Consciousness Plague

How do you know if you've lost your memory? From the winner of Locus Award for Best First Science Fiction Novel comes an intriguing blend of science fiction and hard-boiled police-procedural mystery. The Consciousness Plague is about how the loss of memory can subtly wreak havoc on everything from serial murders to the most basic of human interactions. Phil D'Amato, NYPD forensic detective, investigates a spate of unusual cases of memory loss and finds evidence of a bacteria-like organism that has lived in our brains since the beginning of our species and may be responsible for our very consciousness. Now a new antibiotic crosses the blood-brain barrier, inadvertently killing this essential organism. D'Amato himself becomes a victim of memory loss, and must struggle to get the authorities to pay attention before everyone loses so much memory that they forget the very essence of community and society! Paul Levinson writes science fiction, mystery and popular and scholarly non-fiction. The Silk Code won the Locus Award for Best First Novel of 1999. His novel The Consciousness Plague won the 2003 Mary Shelley Award for Outstanding Fictional Work. He has published more than 25 science fiction stories. Mark Shanahan has appeared at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, off-Broadway, and on film and television. In addition to being a playwright, he has provided voices for commercials, animation, museum tours, audiobooks, and radio programs. He lives in New York City.