2 of 2 copies available
The residents of a sleepy mountain town are rocked by troubling visions of an alternate reality in this dazzling debut that combines the family-driven suspense of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere with the inventive storytelling of The Immortalists.
In the quiet haven of Clearing, Oregon, four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Ginny, a devoted surgeon whose work often takes precedence over her family, has a baffling vision of a beautiful co-worker in Ginny’s own bed and begins to doubt the solidity of her marriage. Ginny’s husband, Mark, a wildlife scientist, sees a vision that suggests impending devastation and grows increasingly paranoid, threatening the safety of his wife and son. Samara, a young woman desperately mourning the recent death of her mother and questioning why her father seems to be coping with such ease, witnesses an apparition of her mother healthy and vibrant and wonders about the secrets her parents may have kept from her. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of new motherhood, catches a glimpse of herself pregnant again, just as she’s on the brink of returning to the project that could define her career.
At first the visions are relatively benign, but they grow increasingly disturbing—and, in some cases, frightening. When a natural disaster threatens Clearing, it becomes obvious that the visions were not what they first seemed and that the town will never be the same.
Startling, deeply imagined, and compulsively readable, Kate Hope Day’s debut novel is about the choices we make that shape our lives and determine our destinies—the moments that alter us so profoundly that it feels as if we've entered another reality.
Praise for If, Then
“Hope Day has a lot of sly, stealthy fun with time-bending and parallel universes, but she also has serious things to say on urban paranoia, climate change and the atomized nature of modern life.”—Daily Mail
“If, Then has the narrative propulsion of a television show . . . [It’s] a whirlwind of a story.”—Chicago Review of Books
“Effortlessly meshing the dreamlike and the realistic, [Kate Hope] Day’s well-crafted mix of literary and speculative fiction is an enthralling meditation on the interconnectedness of all things.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Release date
March 12, 2019 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781984841209
- File size: 245729 KB
- Duration: 08:31:56
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
This speculative audiobook will surely engage listeners. What would you do if you saw an alternate version of yourself from a parallel universe? The story centers around four residents of a quiet Oregon neighborhood and the decisions they make after experiencing strange occurrences. There's Ginny, who sees a parallel version of herself who is happier with a woman; Mark, who sees a postapocalyptic version of himself; Samara, who experiences a different reality in which her late mother is alive; and Cass, who sees herself having another baby. Rebecca Lowman's steady voice perfectly captures each character's demeanor as they try to make sense of their situation. She narrates with enough clarity and distinction that listeners can follow the complex world-building. A.C. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
-