Before You Go

A Novel

De: Tommy Butler

Narrado por: George Newbern

“Hats off to that brave soul daring to write what might be called speculative literary fiction, and willing to venture answers to questions beyond even those of life & death. Tommy Butler’s debut novel Before You Go has a big beating heart and a mind all its own.” — Joshua Ferris, author of The Dinner Party and Then We Came to the End

A big, rich, life-affirming debut that explores the most perplexing questions of existence: purpose, the pain of loneliness, the desire for happiness, and the price we pay as we search for fulfillment.

In the Before, humankind is created with a hole in its heart, the designers not realizing their mistake—if it was a mistake—until too late.

Elliot Chance is just a boy, and knows nothing of this. All he knows is that he doesn’t feel at home in this world, and his desire for escape becomes more urgent as he grows into adulthood, where the turbulence of life seems to offer no cure for the emptiness. Desperate and lost, he stumbles upon a support group on the edge of Manhattan. There he meets two other drifting souls—Sasha, a young woman who leaves coded messages in the copy she writes for advertising campaigns, and Bannor, whose detailed depictions of the future make Elliot think he may have actually been there. With these two unlikely allies, Elliot launches into the business of life, determined to be happy in spite of himself.

Yet the hole in the heart is not so easily filled.

Profound yet playful, Before You Go is a beautiful, imaginative journey into the ache and wonder of being human, and the quest for a meaningful life.

©2020 Tommy Butler (P)2020 HarperAudio

A simple ode to life

It read like a stream of consciousness—and I could completely relate to Elliot and his plight because of it. I was captivated by all the wisdom that the author chooses to share throughout his novel. It was simply written but felt very poetic due to the truth in what he said. It made me cry at the end but more because of the reality of what our existence comes down to. It’s true that as humans we’re insignificant but also beautiful and complex based on our desires—the motivating factor to continue living. The author has a great sense of humor (which lightens up the mood in an otherwise very serious topic) and the narrator is very good in portraying Elliot’s existentialist tone, which made me chuckle. Great read and highly recommendable for anyone who desires a deeper understanding about the meaning of life.