The Almost Moon - Tapa dura

It is a truth universally acknowledged that an author in possession of a good story must be in want of an arresting first sentence. Alice Sebold s new novel, The Almost Moon, contains one of the best opening lines of any book published this year: When all is said and done, killing my mother came easily. It is eerily reminiscent of Albert Camus s L Etranger and certainly had me hooked from the start. --Evening Standard

A woman steps over the line into the unthinkable in this searing portrait of a to-the-death struggle between a mother and a daughter. Clair Knightly and her daughter Helen are locked in a relationship so unrelenting that it has sucked the air out of both of their lives. And as this electrifying novel opens, Helen crosses a boundary she never dreamt she would even approach. But while her act is almost unconscious, it also seems like the fulfillment of a lifetime's buried desire. Over the next twenty-four hours, Helen's life rushes in at her as she confronts the choices that have brought her to this crossroads. A woman who has spent a lifetime trying to win the love of a mother who had none to spare, she now faces an uncertain and dangerous freedom. In The Almost Moon, Sebold explores the complex ties within families, the meaning of devotion and the fragility of the boundary that separates us from our darkest impulses. This is an unforgettable novel, a raw and powerful story, written with the clarity and insight that only Alice Sebold can bring to the page.