Before I Go To Sleep — A Novel book cover by S. J. Watson

Before I Go To Sleep

Adult • Mystery • Thriller & Suspense • Thrillers • Thriller
A Novel
Christine wakes with memory loss Ben claims to be her husband A secret neurologist aids her recovery Journal reveals disturbing truths Inconsistencies raise troubling questions

Memories define us. So what if you lost yours every time you went to sleep? Your name, your identity, your past, even the people you love–all forgotten overnight. And the one person you trust may be telling you only half the story. Welcome to Christine's life. Every morning, she awakens beside a stranger in an unfamiliar bed. She sees a middle-aged face in the bathroom mirror that she does not recognize. And every morning, the man patiently explains that he is Ben, her husband, that she is forty-seven-years-old, and that an accident long ago damaged her ability to remember.

In place of memories Christine has a handful of pictures, a whiteboard in the kitchen, and a journal, hidden in a closet. She knows about the journal because Dr. Ed Nash, a neurologist who claims to be treating her without Ben’s knowledge, reminds her about it each day. Inside its pages, the damaged woman has begun meticulously recording her daily events—sessions with Dr. Nash, snippets of information that Ben shares, flashes of her former self that briefly, miraculously appear.

But as the pages accumulate, inconsistencies begin to emerge, raising disturbing questions that Christine is determined to find answers to. And the more she pieces together the shards of her broken life, the closer she gets to the truth . . . and the more terrifying and deadly it is.

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Edition information

Book details

Publisher
Harper Paperbacks
Publication date
2012
Print length
368 pages
Language
English
ISBN
9780062060563

Mystery + Thriller & Suspense + Thrillers

Reader guide

What to Know Before Reading Before I Go To Sleep

hristine Lucas wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed next to a man she does not recognize, only for him to explain that he is her husband, Ben, and that a severe accident years ago destroyed her ability to form new memories. Every night when she goes to sleep, her mind completely resets, erasing the entire day.Her life takes a tense turn when she is contacted by Dr. Nash, a neurologist helping her secretly reconstruct her past using a hidden journal she keeps to track her progress. As Christine reads her own handwritten notes from previous days, she begins to spot terrifying inconsistencies between her husband's version of her history and her own emerging memories, leaving her to question who she can truly trust when she cannot even trust her own mind.

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About the author

S. J. Watson

S. J. Watson

S J WATSON’s first novel, Before I Go To Sleep, became a phenomenal international success and has now sold over 6,000,000 copies worldwide. It won the Crime Writers’ Association Award for Best Debut Novel and the Galaxy National Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year and has been translated into more than 40 languages. The film of the book, starring Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth and Mark Strong, and directed by Rowan Joffe, was released in September 2014. S J Watson’s second novel, Second Life, a psychological thriller, was published to acclaim in 2015.
A favorite quote

“I have to keep reminding myself that I am not alone.”

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