Before I Go to Sleep is the first novel by S. J. Watson, published in the spring of 2011. It became both a Sunday Times and The New York Times bestseller[1] and has been translated into over 40 languages.[2] It has become a bestseller in France, Canada, Bulgaria and the Netherlands.[3] It reached number 7 on the U.S. bestseller list, the highest position for a debut novel by a British author since J. K. Rowling. The New York Times described the author as an "out-of-nowhere literary sensation".[4] He wrote the novel between shifts whilst working as a National Health Service (NHS) audiologist.[5]
The novel is a psychological thriller about a woman suffering from anterograde amnesia.[6] She wakes up every day with no knowledge of who she is. The novel follows her as she tries to reconstruct her memories from a journal she has been keeping. She learns that she has been seeing a doctor who is helping her to recover her memory, that her name is Christine Lucas, that she is 47 years old and married and has a son. As her journal grows it casts doubts on the truth behind this knowledge as she determines to discover who she really is.[3]
Ridley Scott acquired the film rights and hired Rowan Joffé as director.[17] Nicole Kidman leads as Christine Lucas[18] with Colin Firth as her husband.[19] Mark Strong plays Dr Edmund Nash and Anne-Marie Duff plays Christine's friend, Claire.[20] The film was shot in London and at Twickenham Studios.[21]
It [Before I Go to Sleep] has been translated into 40 languages and racked up blockbuster numbers in France, Canada, Bulgaria, the Netherlands, and the United States. (And this was writer S.J. Watson's debut novel.)
