Somehow Good

An amnesiac man steps off a ship into the fog of London, possessing nothing but a well-tailored suit and the unshakable belief that money awaits him at a bank. He has no memory of who he is, no identification, no credit, but he does have a powerful physique and an instinct for justice that will not stay dormant. When he stumbles into a grimy corner of the city and witnesses a drunken man brutalizing a woman, he intervenes with his fists before his mind can catch up. This impulse drags him into a world of slums, desperate people, and the shadowy Nightingale family, who may hold the keys to his lost identity. The novel follows this unnamed protagonist as he pieces together fragments of a past that apparently involved both violence and high stakes across the Atlantic. De Morgan, writing in the twilight of his career, crafts a tale that uses amnesia as both literal plot device and metaphor: who are we when we strip away everything we own, every document that names us? The answer, somehow, involves boxing, bravery, and the stubborn human refusal to be erased.