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Guests | October 20, 2009

Vincent McCaffrey: IMG A Practical Matter



It was in a letter of 1897, about his cousin James Ross Clemens, that Mark Twain famously noted that "the report of my death was an exaggeration." He... Continue »
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25 Local Warehouse Children's Young Adult- Social Issue Fiction- Death and Dying
18 Remote Warehouse Children's Young Adult- Social Issue Fiction- Death and Dying

Before I Die: A Novel

by Jenny Downham

Before I Die: A Novel Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, drugs with excruciating side-effects, Tessa compiles a list. It's her "To Do Before I Die" list. And number one is Sex.

Released from the constraints of 'normal' life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa's feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, all are painfully crystallised in the precious weeks before Tessa's time finally runs out.

Review:

"Before I Die gutted me as no work of art has done in recent memory....Even as Downham plunges into unabashedly sentimental territory...Tessa's plight never turns gloopy or cloying. In luminous prose that rings completely true, Downham earns every tear she wrings from her readers. (Grade: A-)" Entertainment Weekly

Review:

"[W]renching....Because her experience feels so palpable, readers will believe that the novel's final pages might offer a crystalline vision of death. Lucid language makes a painful journey bearable, beautiful and transcendent." Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Before I Die is Jenny Downham's debut novel. She lives in England.

What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 1 comment:
joran14rocks, October 16, 2008 (view all comments by joran14rocks)
I loved this book it really did show you how lucky you are just to be a healthy person. she really gets in your head and it is ashame that I could not meat her. i think we would have been grate friends. I am glad that Zoey decided to keep her baby.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780385751551
Author:
Downham, Jenny
Publisher:
David Fickling Books
Subject:
Social Issues - Death & Dying
Subject:
Terminally ill
Subject:
England
Subject:
Teenage girls
Copyright:
Edition Description:
American
Publication Date:
September 2007
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
326
Dimensions:
868x578x112 97
Age Level:
14-17

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