Before We Sleep, Jeffrey Lent
Before We Sleep, Jeffrey Lent
List: $21.99 | Sale: $15.39
Club: $10.99

Before We Sleep

Author: Jeffrey Lent

Narrator: Christa Lewis

Unabridged: 14 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 07/04/2017

Categories: Fiction, Family Life


Synopsis

Katey Snow, seventeen, slips the pickup into neutral and rolls silently out of the driveway of her Vermont home, her parents, Oliver and Ruth, still asleep. She isn't so much running away as on a journey of discovery. She carries with her a packet of letters addressed to her mother from an old army buddy of her father's. She has only recently been told that Oliver, who she adores more than anyone, isn't her biological father. She hopes the letter's sender will have answers to her many questions.

Before We Sleep moves gracefully between Katey's perspective on the road and her mother, Ruth's. Through Ruth's recollections, we learn of her courtship with Oliver, their marriage on the eve of war, and his return as a changed man. Oliver had always been a bit dreamy, but became more remote, finding solace most of all in repairing fiddles. There were adjustments, accommodations, sacrifices—but the family went on to find its own rhythms, satisfactions, and happiness. Now Katey's journey may rearrange the Snows' story.

About Jeffrey Lent

Jeffrey Lent was born in Vermont and grew up there and in western New York State. He studied literature and psychology at Franconia College in New Hampshire and SUNY Purchase. His first novel, In the Fall, was a national bestseller. His other novels are Lost Nation, A Peculiar Grace, After You've Gone, and A Slant of Light, which was a finalist for the New England Book Award and a Washington Post Best Book of 2015. Jeffrey lives with his wife and two daughters in central Vermont.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Always on May 30, 2017

Katey Snow finds out that her dad is not her biological father so she heads out on the road to find the man who actually impregnated her mother. The book goes back and forth between Katey and her mother, Ruth's perspective and weaves the two stories together. Another book involving World War II, jus......more

Goodreads review by Charlie on May 08, 2017

Thanks to Goodreads.com I received this book free and clear. AND for an HONEST review. Well, the story goes like this --- Blah, Blah, Blah. I fell asleep several times reading the extremely, descriptively wordy story. The author could have eliminated about 100 pages because of the wordy nature of the......more

Goodreads review by Martha on May 28, 2017

Jeffrey Lent writes a thoughtful and nuanced novel that weaves the experiences of two generations of one family into a canvas with the gorgeous landscape of New England and rural Virginia embedded in the portraits of these people, their struggles with what life throws at them, and their thoughtful,......more

Goodreads review by Michael on March 20, 2017

My review for this novel was published in the March 15, 2017, edition of Library Journal: In Lent's (In the Fall) elegaic sixth novel, 17-year-old Katey Snow sneaks out of her Vermont home while her parents sleep, hitting the road in search of answers to a family secret. Armed with three years of sav......more

Goodreads review by Paula on July 07, 2017

A simple story, well told.......more