The Other Me

A Novel

Coming August 10, 2021 from Berkley Publishing Group

Two lives. The one you wanted. The one that wanted you.

Her birthday should be like any other night.

One minute Kelly’s a free-spirited artist in Chicago going to her best friend’s art show opening. The next, she opens a door and mysteriously emerges in her Michigan hometown. Suddenly her life is unrecognizable: She’s got twelve years of the wrong memories in her head and she’s married to Eric, a man she barely knew in high school.

Racing to get back to her old life, Kelly’s search leads only to more questions. In this life, she loves Eric and wants to trust him, but everything she discovers about him—including a connection to a mysterious tech startup—tells her she shouldn’t. And strange things keep happening. The tattoos she had when she was an artist briefly reappear on her skin, she remembers fights with Eric that he says never happened, and her relationships with loved ones both new and familiar seem to change without warning.

But the closer Kelly gets to putting the pieces together, the more her reality seems to shift. And if she can’t figure out what happened on her birthday, the next change could cost her everything...

Praise for The Other Me

“Mind bending and emotional, The Other Me takes you on a journey of second chances and do-overs. Zachrich Jeng dishes up a taut psychological thriller with a twisted question at its core: Would you be willing to lose a life you love in order to gain something you thought was lost forever?”
—Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Flight

“The definition of unputdownable...a fresh story, quick pacing, intriguing characters. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough! This is one of the most innovative thrillers I’ve read in a long, long time.”
—Samantha Downing, USA Today bestselling author of My Lovely Wife

“Breathtaking, inventive, and irresistible...Who hasn’t wondered what alternate versions of their lives might look like?…As relatable as it is suspenseful, cleverly exploring adulthood, identity, and shifting realities. A knockout debut.”
—Margarita Montimore, USA Today bestselling author of Oona Out of Order

“Both a suspenseful psychological thriller and an astute reinvention of the time travel narrative.”
—CrimeReads

“Jeng’s debut is a page-turner with well-developed characters… A good pick for fans of modern women’s fiction about controlling one’s destiny.”
—Library Journal

“Satisfyingly intricate and genuinely innovative.”
—Eliza Jane Brazier, author of If I Disappear

“An ingenious twist on the domestic thriller, combining mind-bending speculative mystery with timely insights about creative expression, male entitlement, and the complexities of modern marriage. This assured, compelling debut will leave you nostalgic for all the lives you’ve never lived—and desperate to read whatever Sarah Zachrich Jeng’s brilliant imagination whips up next!”
—Layne Fargo, author of They Never Learn