A stylish, gripping and surprising thriller, which is now a film starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Firth. Christine suffers from a strange amnesia which means that each day starts afresh with no memories of the one before. Cared for by her husband and overseen by her doctor, it soon becomes clear that all isn’t necessarily as it should be. One of the most exciting and satisfying reads of the decade, taut and sinister this will have you staying up all night to finish it.
The film version of Before I Go to Sleep was released in UK cinemas on Friday 5 September 2014. Click below to view the trailer.
Shortlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2012. Voted the TV Book Club Best Read 2012. Winner of the Galaxy Crime & Thriller of the Year 2011. Shortlisted for the Galaxy New Writer of the Year 2011. Winner of the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger 2011. Shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger 2011. CWA Judges’ comments: ‘Beautifully realised and enticingly stylised – really gripping and scary. Accomplished and highly effective debut.’
Christine wakes up every morning in an unfamiliar bed with an unfamiliar man. And every morning that man must explain that he is Ben, he is her husband; she is forty-seven years old; and a terrible accident two decades earlier decimated her ability to form new memories. But it's the phone call from a neurologist named Dr. Nash that directs her to her hidden journal. For the past few weeks, Christine has been recording her activities and rereading past entries, learning the facts of her life as retold by the husband upon whom she is completely dependent. As the entries accumulate, Christine finds herself asking more and more questions-about what she missed and what Ben might not be telling her...
'Quite simply the best debut i've ever read' Tess Gerritsen
'Brilliant in its pacing, profound in its central question, suspenseful on every page - and satisfying in its thriller ending' Anita Shreve
'A deft, perceptive exploration of a fascinating neurological condition, and a cracking good thriller' Lionel Shriver
'A terrific first novel - well-written, genuinely unsettling and psychologically very plausible. Thrillers seldom come much better than this' Joanne Harris
'An exceptional thriller. It left my nerves jangling for hours after I finished the last page' Dennis Lehane
'So high-concept, so ambitious and so structurally brilliant. It's so rare to read a thriller that's perfect in every detail, but this one definitely qualifies!' Sophie Hannah
Author
About S. J. Watson
S J Watson was born in the Midlands, lives in London and worked in the NHS for a number of years. In 2009 Watson was accepted into the first Faber Academy 'Writing a Novel' Course, a programme that covers all aspects of the novel-writing process. Before I Go to Sleep is the result. Now sold in over 30 languages around the world, Before I Go To Sleep has been also been acquired for film by Ridley Scott's production company, Scott Free, with Rowan Joffe to direct.
