Before I Knew Him - Hardcover

Ralph, Anna

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0091795575 ISBN 13: 9780091795573

Publisher: Hutchinson, 2008

Synopsis

In the hottest summer for years, the long school holidays stretch out before fourteen-year-old Leo. But he doesn’t see much to look forward to. Leo doesn’t fit in. But nothing ever happens to Leo; he never has a story. Then he meets David. Moody, resentful and tough, David is everything Leo is not and an unlikely friendship soon grows between them.

Events that summer take a dangerous and disturbing turn, and the results are devastating for both boys and their friendship. In the aftermath, traumatized, they pledge to keep their shared secret, never to meet again, and above all — to forget. But when the terrible truth re-emerges ten years later and forces David and Leo back together, everything and nothing has changed.

About this title

About the Author

Anna Ralph was born in 1974. She worked as a bookseller, in public relations and in journalism before writing full-time.

From the Back Cover

Praise for The Floating Island:

A straightforward, frankly sensual debut that explores dependency, responsibility, guilt and desire with assured clarity Guardian

Anna Ralph's debut novel is moving, astute and arrestingly readable. I couldn't put it down. Miranda Seymour

'Strong and evocative, with a rewarding depth of emotion. Her writing has a direct, sensuous feel which I liked very much. It's impressive to find characters who are so embedded in their physical world; it has a touch of D.H. Lawrence about it. I felt as if I was standing - or sinking - on that floating island.' Helen Dunmore

From the Inside Flap

Before I knew him, in the time when he was still a collection of movements and mannerisms I observed from a distance, when he had no history, no future that I could guess, that is the time I d have back. Then, he was a boy, like me, though nothing like me. Perhaps it was that, the differences which drew me to him. But something else, too, more powerful, like the pull of the tide that sucked sand back to the sea

Leo Fisch is a young man with a brilliant future ahead of him. He s about to complete his MBA, and soon to marry the beautiful Kathryn. He is bright, sociable and, outwardly at least, he seems happy. But as the wedding day approaches, Kathryn is troubled by the past he never speaks of, and increasingly disturbed by his reluctance to take her home to meet his family.

But when a shocking discovery devastates Leo s home town, a figure from childhood is thrust back into his life. David Caldwell is tough and aggressive; the very opposite of the company Leo now keeps. Unlikely friends, they are bound by a shared summer and a shared secret they had pledged to forget.

As past and present begin to close in on the comfortable life Leo has created for himself, their terrible truth threatens to re-emerge. David quickly develops a frightening hold over Leo, and it seems that in the ten years since that fateful summer, everything and nothing has changed

Before I Knew Him is an unforgettable portrait of love at its most powerful and obsessive, and of how it can forever change the course of someone s life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Hutchinson
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0091795575
• ISBN 13: 9780091795573
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320