The Forgetting Time

The Forgetting Time by Sharon Guskin

Reincarnation  The religious or philosophical belief that a person's spirit, after biological death, can begin life again in a new body.

 Certainly a topic that generates lively, animated discussion for believers and non-believers alike. Whatever your opinion, this debut novel by author Sharon Guskin guarantees the reader a wealth of information to make even the non-believer ponder the "what ifs"  of  the afterlife.

Janie enjoys a blissful, relaxing vacation on the island of Trinidad. When you're thirty-nine and alone, it's easy to fall for complimentary words and admiring glances from a stranger you'll never see again. It's when you return home to Brooklyn, facing an unexpected pregnancy, that your life suddenly changes in unimaginable ways.  This is where Janie's story begins....

 As a single mother, Janie has come to expect the frantic calls from Noah's preschool. Her four-year-old son is nothing short of a disaster waiting to happen, as far as his teachers are concerned. His constant talk about guns and Harry Potter is puzzling, but his assertions that he was held under water until he blacked out, cast suspicion on what happens at home. Janie admits that Noah has a water phobia, but doesn't reveal her child's piercing cries in the night,or his insistence on going "home" to see his "other mother". When a renowned psychiatrist suggests powerful medication to treat mental illness, Janie turns to Dr. Jerome Anderson, an "explorer" in the field of reincarnation. His studies describe young children with the ability to discuss past experiences in excruciating detail. Dr. Anderson seizes the opportunity to write one last believable American case study for his final book. He himself is slowly slipping away as a result of aphasia, a condition that will eventually take away his ability to communicate. This is his last chance to prove to skeptics that there is merit in what he has uncovered. He doesn't realize that a small, blond-haired, precocious boy will play a big part in his own redemption.

Janie, Noah, and Dr. Anderson warily set out to discover what Noah's outbursts and recollections mean. The ensuing journey takes the three to the home of a woman suffering from an irreparable loss. As the pieces begin to fall into place, astonishing revelations about the past come to the surface. Together, they find that what may seem to give them peace of mind, comes at a very high cost.

Emotional, overwhelmingly thought-provoking, and intense, this novel is a perfect choice for book clubs due to the controversial and intriguing subject matter, The story is pure fiction, but peppered throughout the story are real-life documented cases of reincarnation written by Dr. Jim Tucker from The University of Virginia School of Medicine.

You, the reader, can interpret this research in your own way. "What if you had chances upon chances to love the people you loved, to fix what you screwed up, to get it right" This novel will most definitely be a source of enthusiastic dialogue about that very possibility.