The Forgetting Time

Sharon Guskin

Language: English

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Published: Jan 1, 2016

Description:

Noah wants to go home. A seemingly easy request from most four year olds. But as Noah's single-mother, Janie, knows, nothing with Noah is ever easy. One day the pre-school office calls and says Janie needs to come in to talk about Noah, and no, not later, now - and life as she knows it stops.

For Jerome Anderson, life as he knows it has stopped. A deadly diagnosis has made him realize he is approaching the end of his life. His first thought - I'm not finished yet. Once a shining young star in academia, a graduate of Yale and Harvard, a professor of psychology, he threw it all away because of an obsession. Anderson became the laughing stock of his peers, but he didn't care - something had to be going on beyond what anyone could see or comprehend. He spent his life searching for that something else. And with Noah, he thinks he's found it.

Soon Noah, Janie and Anderson will find themselves knocking on the door of a mother whose son has been missing for eight years - and when that door opens, all of their questions will be answered.

Sharon Guskin has written a captivating, thought-provoking novel that explores what we regret in the end of our lives and hope for in the beginning, and everything in between. In equal parts a mystery and a testament to the profound connection between a child and parent, THE FORGETTING TIME marks the debut of a major new talent.

**

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of February 2016: To say The Forgetting Time is intriguing would be an understatement. Author Sharon Guskin opens her debut novel with a captivating story of a single mother's unstoppable desire to help her son understand his very real memories from another life that constantly haunt him. Later, after you have devoured the book, you realize Guskin has craftily and subtly drawn you in through an exploration of connection, regret, and the meaning of things. No matter your thoughts on the afterlife you will be engrossed by this story, and possibly left contemplating what you thought you believed before. -- Penny Mann

Review

"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

“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