Before I Forget

A Novel

By: Tory Henwood Hoen

A funny, heartfelt, late coming-of-age story that examines the role of memory in holding us back—and in moving us forward—for fans of The Collected Regrets of Clover and Maame.

Call it inertia. Call it a quarter-life crisis. Whatever you call it, Cricket Campbell is stuck. Despite working at a zeitgeisty wellness company, the 26-year-old feels anything but well. Still adrift after a tragedy that upended her world a decade ago, she has entered early adulthood under the weight of a new burden: her father’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

When Cricket’s older sister Nina announces it is time to move Arthur from his beloved Adirondack lake house into a memory-care facility, Cricket has a better idea. In returning home to become her father’s caretaker, she hopes to repair their strained relationship and shake herself out of her perma-funk. But even deeply familiar places can hold surprises.

As Cricket settles back into the family house at Catwood Pond—a place she once loved, but hasn’t visited since she was a teenager—she discovers that her father possesses a rare gift: as he loses his grasp of the past, he is increasingly able to predict the future. Before long, Arthur cements his reputation as an unlikely oracle, but for Cricket, believing in her father’s prophecies might also mean facing the most painful parts of her history. As she begins to remember who she once was, she uncovers a vital truth: the path forward often starts by going back.

With laugh-out-loud humor and profound grace, Before I Forget explores the nuances of family, the complexities of memory, and how sometimes, the people we know the best are the ones who surprise us the most.

©2025 Tory Henwood Hoen (P)2025 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"An emotional, tender, yet restorative read. What I liked most was that there wasn't just a focus on the loss of memory but the gaining of something, too. A wonderful and necessary reminder that whilst life’s worst cases can take away, the same cases can also give." —Jessica George, New York Times bestselling author of Maame

"A tender, funny portrait of love in its myriad forms, Before I Forget cleverly examines the way memories can shape, challenge, and haunt us—but also inspire us to take charge of our own fates. Tory Henwood Hoen crafts a setting so vivid and sensory that you'll be longing to spend a lazy summer in the Adirondacks." —Mikki Brammer, author of The Collected Regrets of Clover