Before I Wake

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

One gorgeous 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. 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.

Meanwhile, Henry Denton, who was driving the truck that nearly killed Sherry, attempts suicide. Unable to die, he finds himself in a place of darkness, somewhere between this world and the next. Haunted by his own guilt, Henry struggles to understand this limbo, and what he must do to free himself.

Under the pressure of caring for their child, Simon and Karen’s marriage 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.

'A stunning debut. Robert Wiersema’s novel is original, thought-provoking and downright wonderful' Michael Connelly

'The kind of storytelling instincts that make you care about the answer to the one question that really counts: What happens next?' Andrew Pyper