A familiar although tragic story; a car accident involving a teenage drunk driver results in the death of his mate. Just when you think things can’t get much worse for the families involved, they do.
Jump to the present and one of the family members is presented with disturbing news, forcing her to confront the fact that ‘before’ can never really be untangled from the present.
Life Before is an affecting, slow burning Australian thriller that takes its sweet time delivering a narrative of the shocking events of the past. You know some peculiar and nasty form of tragedy is on its way but that doesn’t make it less terrible when it finally arrives.
The past in this novel seems so much more vivid than the present; the book would have been sufficiently satisfying as a story about the car accident and its immeadiate consequences. The story set in the present seems a little forced, and the protagonist, Lori, is quite a colourless character. Is it really credible she would never have told her husband the truth of what happened to her family, or about the existence of a brother she knew was still alive? Debatable. But anyway, it’s a beautifully written, vivid portrait of a family before and after tragedy, and well worth a read. 4 stars.
