The Year We Forgot Sun

In the isolated coastal town of Vesper, adults participate in an annual ritual called the Mercy, surrendering one unbearable memory so they can continue living without its pain. Clockmaker Evelyn Vale has always submitted an empty envelope-until she awakens after the ceremony to a child singing downstairs and finds a yellow cup belonging to a daughter she cannot remember. As fragments of Evelyn's past return, she discovers that the Mercy does not destroy memories. It transfers their emotional burden into other people, particularly a mysterious girl repeatedly erased from the town's history. Evelyn must confront her own involvement in the system and decide whether saving the girl is worth returning generations of buried grief to Vesper. The novel explores whether forgetting can ever truly be merciful, who pays for another person's relief, and how love survives when memory fails.