Gripping, deft, and moving.”
—Chelsea Cain, The New York Times Book Review
“I love this book. It is absolutely spectacular. It’s a page-turner but also incredibly thought provoking. It left me completely changed—and isn't that why we all read in first place? The Forgetting Time is a book you'll want to talk about with all of your friends.”
—Octavia Spencer, Academy Award-winning actress
"Bold, captivating...Guskin amps up the suspense while raising provocative questions about the maternal bond and its limits...You'll be mesmerized."
—People (Book of the Week)
"For fans of Cloud Atlas and The Lovely Bones, this psychological mystery will have you hooked until the case is closed—or is it?"
—Cosmo
“If you took to Lovely Bones, you'll be completely engrossed by Guskin's mystery, which meticulously weaves together a web of sympathetic, multi-dimensional characters through alternating chapters…Plenty of fodder for your next book club.”
—InStyle (6 Books to Read this Month)
“Tender…provocative…wholly original…Guskin adroitly maintains the pace of her mystery plot…You’ll come away moved by this affecting tale of maternal love and the unbreakable cords of memory.”
—BookPage
“There’s much to consider in this provocative debut novel—from cultural differences in attitudes toward life and death to the question of whether or not parents can ever truly know their own children. More than anything, The Forgetting Time is a passionate entreaty to readers to embrace the present moment, to find joy, comfort and connection in the here and now.”
—Bookreporter.com
“A captivating, thought-provoking novel that explores what we regret in the end of our lives, hope for in the beginning and everything in-between…The Forgetting Time marks the debut of a major new talent.”
—Domino.com
“Sharon Guskin has burst onto the literary scene like an exploding star…Without doubt The Forgetting Time is the most enthralling debut novel of the year.”
—New York Journal of Books
“An incredible Russian doll of a novel. Beginning as a seemingly ordinary story of maternal struggle, it soon unfurls into a fascinating tour of reincarnation, a compelling murder mystery, and an examination of the familial bond. Like Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, at its core it really is just superb fiction.”
—The Herald
“Provocative and suspenseful…Guskin portrays [Janie and Anderson] with immense empathy.”
—BBC.com (10 Books to Read in February)
“Engaging and riveting. It will make you think about what really matters and how best to spend the time we have.”
—Vancouver Sun
“A great read—Guskin combines a thought-provoking idea with a well-written and compelling story that ensures readers will stay with it, whether or not they believe that souls live on after death. This novel is both engaging and riveting. It will make you think about what really matters and how best to spend the time we have.”
—Windsor Star
“Readers will be galvanized by Guskin’s sharply realized and sympathetic characters with all their complications, contradictions, failures, sorrows, and hope. Deftly braiding together suspense, family drama, and keen insights into the workings of the brain, Guskin poses key and unsettling questions about love and memory, life and death, belief and fact. A novel that bridges the fuzzy categories of ‘literary’ and ‘commercial,’ The Forgetting Time offers a vast spectrum of significant and nuanced topics that will catalyze probing discussions.”
—Booklist (starred review)
“When I wasn't reading The Forgetting Time, I was itching to return to it. And when I was reading it, my mind was exploding with questions about what's possible, what's probable, and how our lives are caught between the two. Provocative, evocative, and fresh, Guskin's book is an explosive debut.”
—Jodi Picoult, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Leaving Time
“Sharon Guskin's debut is the literary equivalent of the sensation you get when, after stargazing from some hillside on a clear night, you're suddenly hit with the terrifying and exhilarating scope of the unknowable. A truly remarkable, dizzying and exquisite page-turner.”
—Téa Obreht, New York Times bestselling author of The Tiger's Wife
“What if what you did mattered more because life happened again and again, consequences unfolding across decades and continents? This question is at the heart of Sharon Guskin's luminous novel. The Forgetting Time is about memory and forgetting, grieving and letting go, and the lengths a mother will go to for her child. It is both a relentlessly paced page-turner and a profound meditation on the meaning of life.”
—Christina Baker Kline, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Orphan Train
“The Forgetting Time is a magical, wise, page-turner of a novel that brings to mind the early work of Alice Hoffman. I absolutely loved it. A very moving, soulful, and beautifully-made debut.”
—Dani Shapiro, bestselling author of Devotion
“A spellbinding ride. Guskin's beautifully rendered and wonderfully told novel explores the mysteries of how we connect to one another in the deepest of ways. What an amazing book.”
—Mary Morris, author of The Jazz Palace
“Sharon Guskin has written a novel that's meticulously crafted without ever losing the heart and soul of the story. It's both a beautiful tale of the bond between a mother and her young son as well as a gripping mystery that asks that universal human question 'were we here before?' Reading The Forgetting Time becomes a personal journey as you try to remember all that you've forgotten.”
—Diane Chamberlain, New York Times bestselling author of The Silent Sister
What if what you did mattered more because life happened again and again, consequences unfolding across decades and continents? This question is at the heart of Sharon Guskin's luminous novel. The Forgetting Time is about memory and forgetting, grieving and letting go, and the lengths a mother will go to for her child. It is both a relentlessly paced page-turner and a profound meditation on the meaning of life.
Sharon Guskin has written a novel that's meticulously crafted without ever losing the heart and soul of the story. It's both a beautiful tale of the bond between a mother and her young son as well as a gripping mystery that asks that universal human question 'were we here before?' Reading The Forgetting Time becomes a personal journey as you try to remember all that you've forgotten.
When I wasn't reading The Forgetting Time, I was itching to return to it. And when I was reading it, my mind was exploding with questions about what's possible, what's probable, and how our lives are caught between the two. Provocative, evocative, and fresh, Guskin's book is an explosive debut.
The Forgetting Time is a magical, wise, page-turner of a novel that brings to mind the early work of Alice Hoffman. I absolutely loved it. A very moving, soulful, and beautifully-made debut.
A spellbinding ride. Guskin's beautifully rendered and wonderfully told novel explores the mysteries of how we connect to one another in the deepest of ways. What an amazing book.
Guskin tells the story of Janie, a single mother whose young son, Noah, seems to remember an earlier life. She seeks the help of Dr. Jerome Anderson, a psychiatrist who hopes to prove his theory of past-life memories as well as the veracity of documented tales of children who recall earlier lives. Susan Bennett, portraying Janie, and David Pittu, portraying Dr. Anderson, create a thought-provoking listening experience. Bennett employs a whole range of emotions, from anger and confusion to peace and acceptance as Janie tries to find answers for her troubled child. Pittu gives a nuanced voice to the psychiatrist, who is racing to regain his reputation and defend his past-life theory before he succumbs to a devastating health problem. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
Guskin tells the story of Janie, a single mother whose young son, Noah, seems to remember an earlier life. She seeks the help of Dr. Jerome Anderson, a psychiatrist who hopes to prove his theory of past-life memories as well as the veracity of documented tales of children who recall earlier lives. Susan Bennett, portraying Janie, and David Pittu, portraying Dr. Anderson, create a thought-provoking listening experience. Bennett employs a whole range of emotions, from anger and confusion to peace and acceptance as Janie tries to find answers for her troubled child. Pittu gives a nuanced voice to the psychiatrist, who is racing to regain his reputation and defend his past-life theory before he succumbs to a devastating health problem. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine
2015-11-19
A single mom confronts the possibility that her troubled 4-year-old is the reincarnated spirit of a murdered child. Thirty-nine-year-old Janie Zimmerman becomes pregnant after an interlude with a stranger while on vacation in Trinidad. Four years later, her son, Noah, is kicked out of preschool because he's talking about guns, drowning, and the scary parts of the Harry Potter books. He constantly asks Janie if he can go home now and if his other mother is coming soon; he absolutely refuses to take a bath. Attempts to address this situation by visiting psychiatrists and specialists result only in draining Janie's savings and in a tentative diagnosis of early-onset schizophrenia. In her desperation, she gets out a bottle of bourbon and Googles the words "help" and "another life." She ends up watching a documentary featuring Dr. Jerome Anderson, "who for many decades has been studying young children who seem to recall details from previous lives." But Anderson is having troubles of his own. Still staggering from the death of his wife one year earlier, he's been diagnosed with aphasia, a form of dementia that involves the gradual loss of language. Though his work has been jeered at by the scientific community, he's now written a book for the general public which has been accepted for publication by "one of the top editors in the field," who requires only that he add one more compelling case history. His phone call from Janie Zimmerman will provide that opportunity, but will his mental faculties hold out long enough for the threesome to solve the mystery of Noah's past? The novel includes many excerpts from a real book called Life Before Life: Children's Memories of Previous Lives by Jim Tucker—these describe real-life cases of apparently transferred memories. Guskin's debut novel tells a sentimental story with a murder mystery at its core, and it's interesting even if you don't go for the premise.
