The Almost Moon

Alice Sebold · first published 2007 · ISBN 9780316004305

Helen Knightly commits an act of violence against her elderly mother and immediately must reckon with what she has done. The novel jumps between Helen's past and present, revealing a lifetime of complicated, sometimes cruel attachment between mother and daughter. Sebold explores how family patterns persist across generations and how intimacy can coexist with harm, doubt, and even contempt.