Before I Forget

An offbeat novel for anyone who's ever loved a monster.

When Anne's father dies, she is left grieving a contradiction. Jean-Pierre was a man of many faces: the self-taught philosopher born into poverty; the Buddhist who marked his favorite haikus with maple leaves; the old romantic who ended every evening kissing a pixelated portrait of his late wife; and the violent bully, whose alcoholism marked his family's life in terrible ways.

Sorting through his belongings and making funeral preparations, Anne tries to come to terms with who and what she's lost. And what's more, she can't help but recognize herself in the father she spent so much of her life running from.