Sleep

A Novel

By: Honor Jones

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

A WASHINGTON POST NOTABLE BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN OPRAH DAILY AND REAL SIMPLE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
Longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize

“Incredibly moving." – Ann Patchett

“Propulsive and funny and heartbreaking.” —J. Courtney Sullivan

"An exceptionally moving novel. Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf."—The New York Times

"Profoundly beautiful."— NPR

From a dazzling new talent, the story of a newly divorced young mother forced to reckon with the secrets of her own childhood when she brings her daughters back to the big house where she was raised.

Every parent exists inside of two families simultaneously – the one she was born into, and the one she has made.

Ten-year-old Margaret hides beneath a blackberry bush in her family’s verdant backyard while her brother hunts for her in a game of flashlight tag. Hers is a childhood of sunlit swimming pools and Saturday morning pancakes and a devoted best friend, but her family life requires careful maintenance. Her mother can be as brittle and exacting as she is loving, and her father and brother assume familiar, if uncomfortable, models of masculinity. Then late one summer, everything changes. After a series of confusing transgressions, the simple pleasures of girlhood, slip away.

Twenty-five years later, Margaret hides under her parents’ bed, waiting for her young daughters to find her in a game of hide and seek. She’s newly divorced and navigating her life as a co-parent, while discovering the pleasures of a new lover. But some part of her is still under the blackberry bush, punched out of time. Called upon to be a mother to her daughters, and a daughter to her mother, she must reckon with the echoes and refractions between the past and the present, what it means to keep a child safe, and how much of our lives are our own, alone.

Warm and generous, unflinchingly human, and ultimately joyful and empowering, SLEEP is about the cycles of motherhood and childhood, the cost of secrets and the burden of love, and what’s on the other side of silence: the world, rich in possibility.

Critic reviews

Praise for Sleep

“An exceptionally moving novel. Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf, all masters of the repressed and unsayable. She covers the same material — the resentments and traumas that smolder in families wrapped in a suburban idyll — and with similar delicacy and humor. But Sleep also introduces a measure of optimism and generosity I found refreshing.”—The New York Times

"Hypnotic... Jones crafts a nuanced and powerful exploration of a woman’s struggle to come to terms with her past… a masterpiece of carefully crafted perspective and tone…Margaret’s plight may feel tragic, but it’s transformed by sheer force of will — and Jones’s tempered prose — into something heroic, even hopeful."—The Washington Post

"Is it possible to have a childhood that is both picture-perfect and perfectly awful? And if so, how much of the baggage will you end up carrying 20-plus years later when you have children of your own? Honor Jones explores these questions in a quietly, profoundly beautiful new novel titled Sleep." —NPR

“Jones’s prose is spare but effervescent, her evocation of childhood is pitch-perfect, and she handles delicate subject matters in adroit and surprising ways.” —Elle

"A haunting and beautiful novel about a desperate attempt to live in the present despite the tidal pull of the past…Incredibly moving." —Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake

“SLEEP marks the arrival of an astonishing new voice in the world of literary fiction. Honor Jones writes with honesty and courage about life’s complications and contradictions. This novel is propulsive and funny and heartbreaking.” —J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Cliffs

“Heartbreaking, sexy, and full of humor . . . With elegant language and profound insight, Honor Jones transforms a story of family secrets into something utterly fresh, original, and exhilarating.” —Xochitl Gonzalez, New York Times bestselling author of Anita De Monte Laughs Last

“A magnetic, breathtaking novel. I could not put it down and will be recommending it to everyone I know.”-- Cherie Jones, author of How the One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House

“Beautiful, bruising, incisive and heartfelt. Sleep takes a moving, maddening, funny and searing look at childhood, family and marriage. I adored it.” -- Chris Whitaker, New York Times bestselling ­author of All the Colors of the Dark

Captivating

There was nothing that I missed with this well told story . She did leave out how she met her husband but you quickly get back to the story.

Best “literary fiction” book in years

This story is piloted by writing so exceptionally efficient it is similar to flying in a private jet. The ascent is so fast and precise, it surpasses the altitude of the average commercial planes. The caliber of writing and narration is as thrillingly dynamic as the plot. Enjoy! The best part of the ending is I’m now jumping straight back to the beginning for a second listen.

Gritty, realistic, soft and solid

Great narrator and narrative. True to life story about surviving sexual abuse. I appreciated the opportunity to hear the messy reality adequately described. Grateful for this author and for the story.

Underwhelming

This is a well-written book from a talented writer. The premise is good but the book had an overwhelming tone of malaise, ennui, and inertia that made it an exercise in endurance. Perhaps this is the point of the book? Rich people who lack for nothing but gumption and self-awareness. The male child, no matter how loathsome, can do no wrong (rich territory for interesting storylines left unplowed!). It felt as if these characters drifted through rather uninteresting lives. Additionally, the protagonist's self-destructiveness wasn't very interesting (dumps a good husband). I didn't care for most of the characters in this book, not because they were awful people, but because they were boring.

Over indulging and pointless

Beautiful writing but meaningless and overindulgent.
Main character can't relate to nagging mother molesting brother, divorced by choice from loving husband, her spoiled younger daughter who when repeatedly is told no, does it anyway without consequences. This character just wanders aimlessly through life.