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Before Now
by Norah OlsonFans of Ellen Hopkins and Jay Asher will fall in love with this heartbreaking tale of doomed romance, expertly told in reverse order. Against all odds, Atty and Cole have escaped their lives in Minneapolis, leaving judgmental parents and unsavory circumstances behind. Their getaway was anything but clean, however, and both of them are haunted and hounded by the mistakes of their pasts. As their old lives begin to catch up with them, they make an unthinkable choice in order to stay together forever. Atty’s journal entries offer a telling and poignant look at the decisions that pushed them to the bitter end.
Before Official Multiculturalism: Women’s Pluralism in Toronto, 1950s-1970s (Studies in Gender and History)
by Franca IacovettaFor almost two decades before Canada officially adopted multiculturalism in 1971, a large network of women and their allies in Toronto were promoting pluralism as a city- and nation-building project. Before Official Multiculturalism assesses women as liberal pluralist advocates and activists, critically examining the key roles they played as community organizers, frontline social workers, and promoters of ethnic festivals. The book explores women’s community-based activism in support of a liberal pluralist vision of multiculturalism through an analysis of the International Institute of Metropolitan Toronto, a postwar agency that sought to integrate newcomers into the mainstream and promote cultural diversity. Drawing on the rich records of the Institute, as well as the massive International Institutes collection in Minnesota, the book situates Toronto within its Canadian and North American contexts and addresses the flawed mandate to integrate immigrants and refugees into an increasingly diverse city. Before Official Multiculturalism engages with national and international debates to provide a critical analysis of women’s pluralism in Canada.
Before Ontario
by Marit Munson Susan JamiesonBefore Ontario there was ice. As the last ice age came to an end, land began to emerge from the melting glaciers. With time, plants and animals moved into the new landscape and people followed. For almost 15,000 years, the land that is now Ontario has provided a home for their descendants: hundreds of generations of First Peoples. With contributions from the province's leading archaeologists, Before Ontario provides both an outline of Ontario's ancient past and an easy to understand explanation of how archaeology works. The authors show how archaeologists are able to study items as diverse as fish bones, flakes of stone, and stains in the soil to reconstruct the events and places of a distant past - fishing parties, long-distance trade, and houses built to withstand frigid winters. Presenting new insights into archaeology's purpose and practice, Before Ontario bridges the gap between the modern world and a past that can seem distant and unfamiliar, but is not beyond our reach. Contributors include Christopher Ellis (University of Western Ontario), Neal Ferris (University of Western Ontario/Museum of Ontario Archaeology), William Fox (Canadian Museum of Civilization/Royal Ontario Museum), Scott Hamilton (Lakehead University), Susan Jamieson (Trent University Archaeological Research Centre - TUARC), Mima Kapches (Royal Ontario Museum), Anne Keenleyside (TUARC), Stephen Monckton (Bioarchaeological Research), Marit Munson (TUARC), Kris Nahrgang (Kawartha Nishnawbe First Nation), Suzanne Needs-Howarth (Perca Zooarchaeological Research), Cath Oberholtzer (TUARC), Michael Spence (University of Western Ontario), Andrew Stewart (Strata Consulting Inc.), Gary Warrick (Wilfrid Laurier University), and Ron Williamson (Archaeological Services Inc).
Before Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province (McGill-Queen's Indigenous and Northern Studies)
by Marit K. Munson Susan M. JamiesonBefore Ontario there was ice. As the last ice age came to an end, land began to emerge from the melting glaciers. With time, plants and animals moved into the new landscape and people followed. For almost 15,000 years, the land that is now Ontario has provided a home for their descendants: hundreds of generations of First Peoples. With contributions from the province's leading archaeologists, Before Ontario provides both an outline of Ontario's ancient past and an easy to understand explanation of how archaeology works. The authors show how archaeologists are able to study items as diverse as fish bones, flakes of stone, and stains in the soil to reconstruct the events and places of a distant past - fishing parties, long-distance trade, and houses built to withstand frigid winters. Presenting new insights into archaeology’s purpose and practice, Before Ontario bridges the gap between the modern world and a past that can seem distant and unfamiliar, but is not beyond our reach. Contributors include Christopher Ellis (University of Western Ontario), Neal Ferris (University of Western Ontario/Museum of Ontario Archaeology), William Fox (Canadian Museum of Civilization/Royal Ontario Museum), Scott Hamilton (Lakehead University), Susan Jamieson (Trent University Archaeological Research Centre - TUARC), Mima Kapches (Royal Ontario Museum), Anne Keenleyside (TUARC), Stephen Monckton (Bioarchaeological Research), Marit Munson (TUARC), Kris Nahrgang (Kawartha Nishnawbe First Nation), Suzanne Needs-Howarth (Perca Zooarchaeological Research), Cath Oberholtzer (TUARC), Michael Spence (University of Western Ontario), Andrew Stewart (Strata Consulting Inc.), Gary Warrick (Wilfrid Laurier University), and Ron Williamson (Archaeological Services Inc).
Before Orientalism
by Kim M. PhillipsA distinct European perspective on Asia emerged in the late Middle Ages. Early reports of a homogeneous "India" of marvels and monsters gave way to accounts written by medieval travelers that indulged readers' curiosity about far-flung landscapes and cultures without exhibiting the attitudes evident in the later writings of aspiring imperialists. Mining the accounts of more than twenty Europeans who made--or claimed to have made--journeys to Mongolia, China, India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asia between the mid-thirteenth and early sixteenth centuries, Kim Phillips reconstructs a medieval European vision of Asia that was by turns critical, neutral, and admiring.In offering a cultural history of the encounter between medieval Latin Christians and the distant East, Before Orientalism reveals how Europeans' prevailing preoccupations with food and eating habits, gender roles, sexualities, civility, and the foreign body helped shape their perceptions of Asian peoples and societies. Phillips gives particular attention to the texts' known or likely audiences, the cultural settings within which they found a foothold, and the broader impact of their descriptions, while also considering the motivations of their writers. She reveals in rich detail responses from European travelers that ranged from pragmatism to wonder. Fear of military might, admiration for high standards of civic life and court culture, and even delight in foreign magnificence rarely assumed the kind of secular Eurocentric superiority that would later characterize Orientalism. Placing medieval writing on the East in the context of an emergent "Europe" whose explorers sought to learn more than to rule, Before Orientalism complicates our understanding of medieval attitudes toward the foreign.
Before Orthodoxy: The Satanic Verses in Early Islam
by Shahab Ahmed“The most systematic, critical study of an especially important tradition from early Islamic history, the so-called incident of the Satanic verses.” —ChoiceOne of the most controversial episodes in the life of the Prophet Muhammad concerns an incident in which he allegedly mistook words suggested by Satan as divine revelation. Known as the Satanic verses, these praises to the pagan deities contradict the Islamic belief that Allah is one and absolute. Muslims today?of all sects?deny that the incident of the Satanic verses took place. But as Shahab Ahmed explains, Muslims did not always hold this view.Before Orthodoxy wrestles with the question of how religions establish truth?especially religions such as Islam that lack a centralized authority to codify beliefs. Taking the now universally rejected incident of the Satanic verses as a case study in the formation of Islamic orthodoxy, Ahmed shows that early Muslims, circa 632 to 800 CE, held the exact opposite belief. For them, the Satanic verses were an established fact in the history of the Prophet. Ahmed offers a detailed account of the attitudes of Muslims to the Satanic verses in the first two centuries of Islam and traces the chains of transmission in the historical reports known as riwayah.Touching directly on the nature of Muhammad’s prophetic visions, the interpretation of the Satanic verses incident is a question of profound importance in Islam, one that plays a role in defining the limits of what Muslims may legitimately say and do?issues crucial to understanding the contemporary Islamic world.
Before Our Eyes: New and Selected Poems, 1975–2017 (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets #145)
by Eleanor WilnerA major new collection from the winner of the 2019 Frost Medal for distinguished lifetime achievement in poetryBefore Our Eyes gathers more than thirty new poems by Eleanor Wilner, along with representative selections from her seven previous books, to present a major overview of her distinguished body of work. A poet who engages with history in lyrical language, Wilner creates worlds that reflect on and illuminate the actual one, drawing on the power of communal myth and memory to transform them into agents of change.In these poems, well-known figures step out of old texts to alter their stories and new figures arise out of the local air—a girl with a fury of bees in her hair, homesick statues that step down from their pedestals, a bat cave whose altar bears a judgment on our worship of war, and a frog whose spring wakening invites our own. In the process, ancient myths are naturalized while nature is newly mythologized in the service of life.Before Our Eyes features widely anthologized works such as “Sarah’s Choice” and “Reading the Bible Backwards.” In the new poems, Wilner records the bewildering public shocks of the current moment, when civic life is under threat, when language itself is attacked, and when poetry’s lens of collective imagination becomes a way to resist falsity, to seek meaning, and to really see what is before our eyes.
Before Pornography: Erotic Writing In Early Modern England (Studies In The History Of Sexuality)
by Ian Frederick MoultonBefore Pornography explores the relationship between erotic writing, masculinity, and national identity in Renaissance England. Drawing on both manuscripts and printed texts, and incorporating insights from modern feminist theory and queer studies, the book argues that pornography is a historical phenomenon: while the representation of sexual activity exists in nearly all cultures, pornography does not. The book includes analyses of the social significance of eroticism in such canonical texts as Sidney's Defense of Poesy and Spenser's Faerie Queene.
Before Queer Theory: Victorian Aestheticism and the Self
by Dustin FriedmanA reimagining of how the aesthetic movement of the Victorian era ushered in modern queer theory.Late Victorian aesthetes were dedicated to the belief that an artwork's value derived solely from its beauty, rather than any moral or utilitarian purpose. Works by these queer artists have rarely been taken seriously as contributions to the theories of sexuality or aesthetics. But in Before Queer Theory, Dustin Friedman argues that aestheticism deploys its "art for art's sake" rhetoric to establish a nascent sense of sexual identity and community.Friedman makes the case for a claim rarely articulated in either Victorian or modern culture: that intellectually, creatively, and ethically, being queer can be an advantage not in spite but because of social hostility toward nonnormative desires. Showing how aesthetes—among them Walter Pater, Oscar Wilde, Vernon Lee, and Michael Field—harnessed the force that Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel called "the negative," Friedman reveals how becoming self-aware of one's sexuality through art can be both liberating and affirming of humanity's capacity for subjective autonomy.Challenging one of the central precepts of modern queer theory—the notion that the heroic subject of Enlightenment thought is merely an effect of discourse and power—Friedman develops a new framework for understanding the relationship between desire and self-determination. He also articulates an innovative, queer notion of subjective autonomy that encourages reflecting critically on one's historical moment and envisioning new modes of seeing, thinking, and living that expand the boundaries of social and intellectual structures. Before Queer Theory is an audacious reimagining that will appeal to scholars with interests in Victorian studies, queer theory, gender and sexuality studies, and art history.
Before Recollection (Princeton Series of Contemporary Poets #161)
by Ann LauterbachFrom Before Recollection:TRANSCENDENTAL POSTCARD Ann Lauterbach ? The outlook such that time is told on waking,Without aid of cock or clock's crow.In fact all the birds are elsewhere,Poised on glossy page or in some fallMigration. Sun up over mountain is precision,Then mist travels, exhaling day.All else, all change, is air,Dew relenting on the bladesAnd mirror rhymesWhere water bears resemblance:A strut of hues to pale even Revlon's alchemy and,In the center of its glaze, a cauldron of sky-cast blue.
Before Science: The Invention of the Friars' Natural Philosophy
by Roger French Andrew CunninghamThe opposition of science and religion is a recent phenomenon; in the middle ages, and indeed until the middle of the nineteenth century, there was almost no conflict. In the Middle Ages the objective study of nature - the activity we now call science - was largely the province of religious men. This book looks at the origins of western science and the central role played by the Dominican and Franciscan friars. It explains why these two groups devoted so much intellectual effort to the study of physical and biological phenomena, and distinguishes 'Natural Philosophy' from 'science' as presently understood. Though the friars were recognisably 'scientific' in their approach their motives were religious - they wished to understand the mind of God and the beauty of God's nature. Even so, as this study makes clear, the roots of western science lie in the monasteries and refuges of the medieval friars - the direct forebears of the anti-scientific Popes of the age of Copernicus and Galileo.
Before Scotland: A Prehistory
by Alistair MoffatA pioneering look at early Scotland that transforms prehistory into gripping narrative. The story of the land that became Scotland is one of dramatic geological events and impressive human endeavor. Alistair Moffat’s gripping narrative ranges from the great thaw at the end of the Ice Age, which was instrumental in shaping Scotland’s magnificent landscape; through the megalith builders, the Celts, and the Picts; to the ascension of King Constantine II. Moffat deploys his knowledge with wit and deftness, interweaving the story with numerous special features on topics as diverse as cave drawings of dancing girls, natural birth control, the myth of Atlantis, and the Zoroastrian Towers of Silence—all of them valuable, sometimes quirky, additions to the whole picture. Erudite and entertaining, Before Scotland transforms our understanding of a neglected period and is essential reading for anyone interested in the people, events, and monuments that make up Scotland’s captivating past.
Before Sexuality: The Construction of Erotic Experience in the Ancient Greek World
by David M. Halperin John J. Winkler Froma I. ZeitlinA dream in which a man has sex with his mother may promise him political or commercial success--according to dream interpreters of late antiquity, who, unlike modern Western analysts, would not necessarily have drawn conclusions from the dream about the dreamer's sexual psychology. Evidence of such shifts in perspective is leading scholars to reconsider in a variety of creative ways the history of sexuality. In these fifteen original essays, eminent cultural historians and classicists not only discuss sex, but demonstrate how norms, practices, and even the very definitions of what counts as sexual activity have varied significantly over time. Ancient Greece offers abundant evidence for a radically different set of sexual standards and behaviors from ours. Sex in ancient Hellenic culture assumed a variety of social and political meanings, whereas the modern development of a sex-centered model of personality now leads us to view sex as the key to understanding the individual. Drawing on both the Anglo-American tradition of cultural anthropology and the French tradition of les sciences humaines, these essays explore the iconography, politics, ethics, poetry, and medical practices that made sex in ancient Greece not a paradise of liberation but an exotic locale hardly recognizable to visitors from the modern world. In addition to the editors, the contributors to this volume are Peter Brown, Anne Carson, Franoise Frontisi-Ducroux, Maud W. Gleason, Ann Ellis Hanson, Franois Lissarrague, Nicole Loraux, Maurice Olender, S.R.F. Price, James Redfield, Giulia Sissa, and Jean-Pierre Vernant.
Before She Dies (Center Point Platinum Romance (large Print) Ser.)
by Mary Burton"Will have readers sleeping with the lights on." --Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)HE IS THEIR JUDGE... In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are. Witches, sent to tempt and to corrupt... JURY... No one knows about defense attorney Charlotte Wellington's murdered sister, or about her childhood spent with the carnival that's just arrived in town. For Charlotte, what's past is past. But others don't agree. And as a madman's body count rises, she and Detective Daniel Rokov are drawn into a mission that's become terrifyingly personal... AND EXECUTIONER At last, she is within his reach. All his victims deserve their fate, but her guilt is greatest. And with every scream, he will make her see what it means to suffer and repent--before she dies... "Stieg Larsson fans will find a lot to like in Burton's taut, well-paced novel." --Publishers Weekly on Senseless
Before She Dies
by Mary BurtonHe Is Their Judge. . . In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are. Witches, sent to tempt and to corrupt. . . Jury. . . No one knows about defense attorney Charlotte Wellington's murdered sister, or about her childhood spent with the carnival that's just arrived in town. For Charlotte, what's past is past. But others don't agree. And as a madman's body count rises, she and Detective Daniel Rokov are drawn into a mission that's become terrifyingly personal. . . And ExecutionerAt last, she is within his reach. All his victims deserve their fate, but her guilt is greatest. And with every scream, he will make her see what it means to suffer and repent--before she dies. . .
Before She Dies
by Mary BurtonHe Is Their Judge. . .In death, they are purified. Holding his victims under water, he washes away their sins as they struggle for their last breath. Then he stakes their bodies to the ground, exposing them for what they really are. Witches, sent to tempt and to corrupt. . .Jury. . .No one knows about defense attorney Charlotte Wellington's murdered sister, or about her childhood spent with the carnival that's just arrived in town. For Charlotte, what's past is past. But others don't agree. And as a madman's body count rises, she and Detective Daniel Rokov are drawn into a mission that's become terrifyingly personal. . .And ExecutionerAt last, she is within his reach. All his victims deserve their fate, but her guilt is greatest. And with every scream, he will make her see what it means to suffer and repent--before she dies. . .Praise for the novels of Mary Burton"Terrifying. . .this chilling thriller is an engrossing story." --Library Journal on Merciless"Stieg Larsson fans will find a lot to like in Burton's taut, well-paced novel." --Publishers Weekly on Senseless"A twisted tale. . .I couldn't put it down!" --Lisa Jackson on Dying Scream
Before She Dies (Posadas County Mysteries #4)
by Steven F. Havill"If what you're hiding is motive, Gastner will ferret it out and do what needs to be done. An outstanding mystery." --Booklist starred reviewPosadas Register reporter Linda Real barely survives her nighttime patrol with one of Undersheriff Bill Gastner's deputies. He is killed by a more accurate shotgun blast than the one that ruins her face. Teamed with his intuitive, observant detective Estelle Reyes-Guzman and her usual sharp eye for physical evidence, Bill implicates Tammy Woodruff, the thrill-seeking daughter of the local Republican County Chairman, in the brutal assault. Before he can interrogate her, though, Tammy hightails it. Soon she is found crushed to death after her truck goes off the road while she's loaded with booze - in fact, far too much alcohol, for anyone to have consumed....
Before She Disappeared: A Novel (A Frankie Elkin Novel #1)
by Lisa GardnerFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a propulsive thriller featuring an ordinary woman who will stop at nothing to find the missing people that the rest of the world has forgottenFrankie Elkin is an average middle-aged woman, a recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings. But she spends her life doing what no one else will--searching for missing people the world has stopped looking for. When the police have given up, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking. A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation. She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier. Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim's wary family tells Frankie she's on her own--and she soon learns she's asking questions someone doesn't want answered. But Frankie will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.
Before She Fell: A brand new totally gripping mystery full of twists
by Natalie SammonsAn ostentatious party descends into violence—and a disgraced cop sets out to redeem herself by solving the case . . . Susan Grey&’s fiftieth birthday party promised to be a talked-about event—an over-the-top extravagant gathering of a hundred guests at her sprawling Georgian home. But it would be talked about for all the wrong reasons . . . From an escalated argument to the disappearance of an expensive piece of jewelry, the party was quickly spiraling out of control. But the worst was yet to come, when Susan suffered a horrific fall down the grand staircase. Was it an accident or was she pushed? For DI Grace Roth, relegated to desk duty due to an internal investigation, this could be a high-profile case and a chance to redeem herself. But every lead seems to send her in circles. As the badly injured Susan lies in her hospital bed, DI Roth must try to gather the scattered pieces of the puzzle and make them fit—before anyone else gets hurt . . .
Before She Finds Me: A Novel
by Heather ChavezTwo unlikely mothers race to uncover the truth behind a horrific attack—even after it becomes clear that the truth will destroy one of their families—in this shocking thriller that is "both timely and emotional" (Julie Clark, New York Times bestselling author). "Slick, smart, layered, and full of surprises." —Lisa Unger "An exciting thriller perfect for fans of Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Pieces of Her." —Buzzfeed "Wholly addictive." —May Cobb "Chavez is at the top of her game." —Jeneva Rose "Fresh and surprising." —BookPage (starred review) Named a "Summer Must-Read" by CrimeReads • Book Riot • BuzzFeed • Fresh Fiction • BookBub • Wealth of Geeks • Daily Times • Ground News • SheReads • Mercury News • East Bay Times • Boston Herald • The Orange County Register Julia Bennett has worked hard to create a stable life for her daughter, Cora, in Southern California. So when Cora leaves for college, the worst thing Julia expects on move-in day is an argument with her ex-husband and his new wife. But a sudden attack leaves the campus stunned—and only Julia&’s quick actions save Cora&’s life. Shaken in the aftermath, and haunted by a dark secret, Julia starts to wonder: What if the attack wasn&’t as random as everyone believes? Newly pregnant Ren Petrovic has an unusual career—she&’s a trained assassin, operating under a strict moral code. Ren wasn&’t on campus that day, but she knows who was: her husband, Nolan. What she doesn&’t know is why Nolan has broken their rules by not telling her about the job in advance. The more Ren looks into the attack, the more she begins to question: Who really hired Nolan? And why did one woman in the crowd respond so differently from all the rest? Julia and Ren each want answers, but their searches quickly pit them against each other. One woman is a hired killer, but the other is a determined survivor. And both mothers will defend their families to the bitter end.
Before She Goes
by Katie BrownEliza Banks is the perfect housewife: dutiful, attentive, considerate. She knows there is nothing more she could possibly want than what she already has. Her husband, her childhood sweetheart, is the kind of man other girls would give their lives to get their hands on. Her life is idyllic, picture-perfect. Eliza Banks’ life is surely a dream come true.But all of her delusions come crumbling down with the return on Callie Stewart seven years after she last saw the woman, storming from her bedroom in the early hours of the morning. Eliza knows it’s a dangerous game she’s playing when she offers to help Callie pack up some of her belongings in her old house. She knows, deep down, this can only end badly.Old feelings stir, old flames are sparked, and everything Eliza worked so hard to bury beneath the folds of a wedding dress comes rising to the surface once more.
Before She Ignites
by Jodi Meadows“A fully realized fantasy world complete with dragons, treachery, and flawed characters discovering their courage. I couldn’t put it down!” —C. J. Redwine, New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow QueenFrom the New York Times bestselling co-author of My Lady Jane comes a smoldering new fantasy trilogy perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Kristin Cashore about a girl condemned for defending dragons and the inner fire that may be her only chance of escape. Mira has always been a symbol of hope for the Fallen Isles, perfect and beautiful—or at least that’s how she’s forced to appear. But when she uncovers a dangerous secret, Mira is betrayed by those closest to her and sentenced to the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. Except Mira is over being a pawn. Fighting to survive against outer threats and inner demons of mental illness, Mira must find her inner fire and the scorching truth about her own endangered magic—before her very world collapses. And that’s all before she ignites.
Before She Knew Him: A Novel
by Peter SwansonCatching a killer is dangerous—especially if he lives next doorFrom the hugely talented author of The Kind Worth Killing comes an exquisitely chilling tale of a young suburban wife with a history of psychological instability whose fears about her new neighbor could lead them both to murder . . .Hen and her husband Lloyd have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen (short for Henrietta) is an illustrator and works out of a studio nearby, and has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder. Finally, she’s found some stability and peace.But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Hen knows because she’s long had a fascination with this unsolved murder—an obsession she doesn’t talk about anymore, but can’t fully shake either.Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college, when she became so consumed with proving a fellow student guilty that she ended up hurting a classmate?The more Hen observes Matthew, the more she suspects he’s planning something truly terrifying. Yet no one will believe her. Then one night, when she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot, she realizes that he knows she’s been watching him, that she’s really on to him. And that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape. . .
Before She Met Me (Vintage International)
by Julian BarnesAt the start of this fiendishly comic and suspenseful novel, a mild-mannered English academic chuckles as he watches his wife commit adultery. The action takes place before she met him. But lines between film and reality, past and present become terrifyingly blurred in this sad and funny tour de force from the author of Flaubert's Parrot.
Before She Sleeps: A Novel
by Bina Shah“A haunting dystopian thriller” from the acclaimed author of A Season for Martyrs— “Fans of The Handmaid’s Tale won’t want to miss this one” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). In modern, beautiful Green City, the capital of Southwest Asia, gender selection, war, and disease have brought the ratio of men to women to alarmingly low levels. The government uses terror and technology to control its people, and now females must take multiple husbands to have children as quickly as possible. Yet there are some who resist, women who live in an underground collective and refuse to be part of the system. Secretly protected by the highest echelons of power, they emerge only at night to provide the rich and elite of Green City a type of commodity no one can buy: intimacy without sex. As it turns out, not even the most influential men can shield them from discovery and the dangers of ruthless punishment. This dystopian novel from one of Pakistan’s most talented writers is a modern-day parable, The Handmaid’s Tale for repressed women in Muslim countries everywhere. Before She Sleeps takes the patriarchal practices of female seclusion and veiling, gender selection, and control over women’s bodies, amplifying and distorting them in a truly terrifying way to imagine a world of post-religious authoritarianism.