After the Eclipse: A Memoir

A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. "A heartfelt memoir and a suspenseful story" of a murdered mother (Gabourey Sidibe, Book of the Month Club).

When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother's death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. "Pull[ing] the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy" in After the Eclipse, "Perry succeeds in restoring her mother's humanity and her own" (The New York Times Book Review).

"Raw and perfect . . . After the Eclipse [has] an eerie, heartbreaking power that it shares with the very best of true crime." —Laura Miller, Slate
"A gut punch . . . A heartbreaking yet hopeful testament to human resilience." —Samantha Irby, Marie Claire
"With clear, powerful prose, Perry paints a portrait of unconventional motherhood while questioning society's handling of violence against women. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson's The Red Parts, After the Eclipse tells the very human story at the center of a needless crime."—W Magazine