Tuesday, September 18, 2012

The Strangest Book Presentation Ever

Why?  Because the only words on the book jacket are printed on the spine of the book.  "Before I Go To Sleep"  S. J. Watson.  That's it for reading.  The cover is a photo of a woman's face, reflected in a bathroom mirror, clouded by steam.  The back cover is more steam on the mirror. 

There is no jacket flap at either end of the book.  This hardcover book has been printed with the photo and nothing else. 

I googled S. J. Watson and found that is Steven Watson, a 31 year old male.  He worked as an audiologist for deaf children in a London hospital.  In his spare time, he wrote this book which is written in a woman's voice.  The book dedication is:  For my mother and for Nicolas.

"What's it about?" you say?  The book begins as if the woman relating the story is in her early '20s.  She has woken up in a strange bedroom next to a man she doesn't recognize.  Panicked, she slithers out of the bed and into the bathroom.  Staring into the mirror, she discovers she is not 20-something, but 40-something instead.  She is horrified.

The man in the bed awakens and comes to her in the bathroom.  "I'm your husband, Ben," he says.

The reader soon discovers that as a result of being nearly killed by a hit and run driver, she has a type of amnesia that refuses to let her brain store new information.  Every morning, when she wakes up, is literally a new day to her.

I won't be a spoiler; suffice to say simply that her life as she believes it to be is very different from reality.

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