The Almost Moon: A Novel

Alice Sebold

Oct 2007 · Sold by Little, Brown

About this ebook

A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this brilliant, powerful, and unforgettable new novel by the author of The Lovely Bones and Lucky.

For years Helen Knightly has given her life to others: to her haunted mother, to her enigmatic father, to her husband and now grown children. When she finally crosses a terrible boundary, her life comes rushing in at her in a way she never could have imagined. Unfolding over the next twenty-four hours, this searing, fast-paced novel explores the complex ties between mothers and daughters, wives and lovers, the meaning of devotion, and the line between love and hate. It is a challenging, moving, gripping story, written with the fluidity and strength of voice that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.

Ratings and reviews

This is an unusual book that has gotten a lot of negative criticism because of the author's taboo subject matter: matricide & mental illness... In the first chapter, the book's main character, Helen, kills her elderly mother - the remainder of the book jumps between past and present explaining the how's and why's of Helen's choices. This was not a spectacular book that I could not put down, however it was a well-written dramatic fiction that skirted oh-so-close to reality & was certainly a "thinker" worth reading.

I died a slow agonizing death reading this book. I had trouble picking it up after I kept putting it down. But I'm a trooper so I finished it ( because I paid for it), but It was bad.

The book grabs your attention at the beginning but in the end it goes flat. The story is about a love/hate relationship between a mental ill mother and her daughter. The entire story happens in a twenty four hour period. The start of those twenty four hours go by fast towards the end of that twenty four hour period things slow to a crawl.

About the author

Alice Sebold is the bestselling author of The Lovely Bones, The Almost Moon, and Lucky a memoir. She lives in California with her husband, the novelist Glen David Gold.