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Imagine Me Gone cover art

Imagine Me Gone

Written by: Adam Haslett
Narrated by: Ellen Archer, Robert Fass
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Publisher's Summary

From a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist, a ferociously intimate story of a family facing the ultimate question: How far will we go to save the people we love the most?

When Margaret's fiancé, John, is hospitalized for depression in 1960s London, she faces a choice: carry on with their plans despite what she now knows of his condition, or back away from the suffering it may bring her. She decides to marry him. Imagine Me Gone is the unforgettable story of what unfolds from this act of love and faith. At the heart of it is their eldest son, Michael, a brilliant, anxious music fanatic who makes sense of the world through parody. Over the span of decades, his younger siblings - the savvy and responsible Celia and the ambitious and tightly controlled Alec - struggle along with their mother to care for Michael's increasingly troubled and precarious existence.

Told in alternating points of view by all five members of the family, this searing, gut-wrenching, yet frequently hilarious novel brings alive with remarkable depth and poignancy the love of a mother for her children, the often inescapable devotion siblings feel toward one another, and the legacy of a father's pain in the life of a family.

With his striking emotional precision and lively, inventive language, Adam Haslett has given us something rare: a novel with the power to change how we see the most important people in our lives.

©2016 Hachette Audio (P)2016 Adam Haslett
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: LGBTQ2S+

What the critics say

"Spectacular.... You should buy this book, you should read it, and you should admire it.... [It] is the herald of a phenomenal career." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"Exceedingly well written...a high-spirited, slyly astute exploration of our great bottoming out." ( The Boston Globe)
"Haslett possesses a rich assortment of literary gifts: an instinctive empathy for his characters and an ability to map their inner lives in startling detail; a knack for graceful, evocative prose; and a determination to trace the hidden arithmetic of relationships." ( New York Times)

What listeners say about Imagine Me Gone

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Literary Masterpiece!

Loved the overall sincerity of the characters, hearing each of their voices interspersed, creating layers upon layers of intimacy with the reader. The story unfolds with a deceptively calm tone in stark contrast to the complexities of individual lives and of the family as a whole. The topic of depression and mental illness is illuminated on a deeply emotional level, with words and cadence that feel poetic. This book will stay with me for a very long time.

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