Imagine Me Gone

Shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Awards 2017 ‘...please know that you tried very hard indeed, and that you loved your family as deeply as you could’ Universal and essential, Imagine Me Gone is the heart-breaking story of an ordinary American family shaped by tragedy. Michael is a precocious kid, smart and funny, obsessed with books and music. His sister Celia is the sensible one in the family: tougher than the boys, unshakeably certain about how the world works. And then there's Alec, the most ambitious and also the most sensitive, growing up in the shadow of his older siblings. While all three are still young, the course of their lives is changed forever. In a family marked by tragedy, Michael, Celia and Alec struggle for years to save one another from the destructive legacy of guilt. Weaving together the voices of five family members, Adam Haslett imagines how a single event can define many lives, unfolding a rich and painful novel that has all the makings of an American classic. ‘An intense celebration of art, language and life.’ – The Guardian ‘This is a book refreshingly replete with surprise. It sneaks up on you with dark and winning humor, poignant tenderness and sentences so astute that they lift the spirit even when they’re awfully, awfully sad.’ – The New York Times ‘Haslett understands the power of sentiment to move without ever becoming maudlin or arch, leading us down a dark path at the end of which a light of hope still burns.’ – The Spectator