We structure the world according to our memories, but can we trust them?
Author: Julia Korkman
Swedish original: Minnets makt
Publisher: Schildts & Söderströms, 2022
Genre: non-fiction
Number of pages: 336 pp.
Reading material: Swedish original, Finnish original, English sample, English synopsis
In a small boy’s story, his grandmother hurts her hand whilst chopping wood. It’s a vivid, truthful description, but takes place before he was born.
A witness, saved from under a truck driven into a crowd of people, is describing his luck in throwing himself over a tall wall. The pictures from the scene of the accident show the “wall” no higher than the kerbstone.
Memory Dependent: The Justice Process and the Truth is a book on how the memory functions. It elucidates several crimes and legal cases, in which memory has played an important role during the trial, and it shows how disastrous not understanding the nature of memory can be.
The author Julia Korkman has worked as an expert in countless trials and she is one of the leading experts of witness reliability in evaluating witnesses’ testimonies.
“Memory Dependent is clear science writing at its best. Korkman manages to explain complicated things well, with a flowing style. The readers who have an interest in the work of the police, criminal investigation, and above all, the endless way memory hoodwinks us, will draw the margins full of exclamation points.”
–Österbottens Tidning newspaper
About the author:
Julia Korkman