I just finished reading Before I Wake by Robert J. Wiersema and this is an incrediblely moving book. I don’t know how to write most of my reaction without giving away a lot of the plot so all I am going to say is this – do yourself a favour and get a copy of this book. Anyone who was moved by The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold or The Mercy of Thin Air by Ronlyn Domingue should definitely read Wiersema’s debut novel.

Before I Wake shifts narration between Sherry’s parents Simon and Karen, her nurse Ruth, and several other key characters. Initially I was sure this constantly changing voice would be distracting but it wasn’t. I was pulled into the story so quickly that the perspective changes only enhanced the momentum.

I’m not one to cry when reading a book but I nearly did with Before I Wake. So for those of you who do cry, make sure you have a box of tissues close at hand.

Publisher Synopsis:
Tragedy can strike at any time. In a single moment of distraction, in one instant’s miscalculation.

On a beautiful spring day, three-year-old Sherry Barrett is injured in a hit-and-run accident. Her devastated parents, Simon and Karen, wait by her bedside, hoping for a miracle…one that doesn’t come. Told that she will never recover, they agree to remove her from life support. And then the miracle occurs. Sherry doesn’t die. But neither does she wake.

Under the pressure of caring for their child, the fissures in Simon and Karen’s marriage become gaping wounds, and the family is pushed to the point of collapse. And then pushed even further by the undeniable fact that their little girl, trapped in her living death, has become a healer.

ISBN10: 0679313737
ISBN13: 9780679313731

Hardcover
Pages: 384
Publisher: Random House Canada
Publication Date: August 8, 2006

tags: books book reviews Robert J. Wiersema family relationships Canadian author fiction