Idea behind the story:

Religious and non-religious people alike are fascinated by the idea of a human soul (which some simply define as their “entire essence”) which makes them unique and separates them from animals and other people.  Actually, no one knows what the soul of a person is.  As a scientist, I have often thought about what would happen if a person could somehow digitally record the sum total of their thoughts, experiences, and memories and then transfer it to another person’s brain.  Of course, this “essence” file would need to be formatted in such a way that another person’s brain could understand it and receive it.   If this could be done, then the recipient would essentially be “possessed” by the other person, resulting in two distinct entities inside one body.

This book tells such a story. It takes the neuroscientific basis of memories and develops it in fiction in a way as never before, leaving the reader intrigued, if not stunned by the implications.  The characters are university scientists and their family members who have both personal and professional interests in memory research. Unfortunately, one of the characters becomes possessed with the soul of another and things go badly.  Very badly.