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The Story of Before

The Story of Before

Author(s): Susan Stairs

Location(s): Dublin, Ireland

Genre(s): Fiction

Era(s): Modern

Location

Content

I wonder today how no one else could see the bad thing coming. Not that I knew back then what the bad thing was: and if I had – if I’d known one of us was going to die – would there have been anything I could have done to prevent it? I play it all back in my mind, over and over. The clues were all there.

On New Year’s Eve, eleven-year-old Ruth and her brother and sister sit at a bedroom window, watching the garden of their new Dublin home being covered in a thick blanket of snow. Ruth declares that a bad thing will happen in the coming year – she’s sure of it. But she cannot see the outline of that thing – she cannot know that it will change their lives utterly, that the shape of their future will be carved into two parts: the before and the after.

Or that it will break her heart and break her family.

This is Ruth’s story. It is the story of before.

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Lead Review

A wonderfully evocative book with a beautiful dusting of magic brushed through each page –Rozz.ie

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