Sleep Before Evening (Paperback)

by Magdalena Ball (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
It is moving and harsh and every word seemed true ... a great read. -- Bria Phillips

Product Description
Marianne is teetering at the edge of reason. A death in the family sends her brilliant academic career and promising future spiraling out of control until resentment towards those who shaped her past leads her on a wild and desperate search for the truth about herself. On the seedy side of New York, she meets Miles, a hip musician busking the streets and playing low-rent venues in a muddled bid to make his own dreams come true. In her new life, she finds anarchic squalor, home grown music and poetry, booze, drugs, sex, violence, love, loss . and, above all, exhilarating freedom on her troubled journey from sleep to awakening. This gritty, relentless story unfolds with the same cool detachment that motivates the central character to peel back the layers of her life and expose the painful scalding within.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Bewrite Books (July 24, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904492967
• ISBN-13: 978-1904492962
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,698,121 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Teens and Parents, July 30, 2007

By	Carolyn Howard-Johnson "Author 'This is the P... (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

No, "Sleep Before Evening" isn't a how-to book for either teens or parents. It does, however, give insight into the horrors of drug addiction, how it can happen to anyone and how it can escalate. We are all affected by it and it may some day creep up on us with silent paws to become part of our lives in a personal way. Having some understanding of the disease, how it can escalate and how it is not a cause for shame but for action can make a difference if and when that happens.

This is a wonderful book, a story told with compassion and one that, as a volunteer drug counselor, I know rings so very heartbreakingly true.
----
Reviewed by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, award-winning author of THIS IS THE PLACE, HARKENING and a chapbook of poetry, TRACINGS, all available on Amaazon.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book will touch heart and soul, July 14, 2007

By	C. Hautmann - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The dialogue is solid and believable, and the characters live and breathe and scratch themselves. The drug scenes and the horrors of dependence are especially well-rendered, but the story is ultimately uplifting and optimistic. It is a triumph of the soul. Read this book. CHAD HAUTMANN, author of Billie's Ghost

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A young girl's journey into the heart of darkness, August 5, 2007

By	Cathy Biribauer (Toronto, ON CAN) - See all my reviews

(excerpt)
As the drama coils tighter and tighter, it is the exquisite quality of writing that keeps the reader utterly glued. As Marianne struggles with her demons and we almost hold our breath as she nears her eighteenth birthday, Magdalena Ball's Sleep Before Evening shows us that in order to find yourself, you sometimes have to lose yourself first.
For full review, please see The Rose and Thorn ezine