If, Then

A Novel

By: Kate Hope Day

Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman

“A must-read - a gorgeous literary novel that asks us to imagine all the possible versions of ourselves that might exist.” (J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times best-selling author of Saints for All Occasions)

The residents of a sleepy mountain town are rocked by troubling visions of an alternate reality in this dazzling debut that combines the family-driven suspense of Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere with the inventive storytelling of The Immortalists.

In the quiet haven of Clearing, Oregon, four neighbors find their lives upended when they begin to see themselves in parallel realities. Ginny, a devoted surgeon whose work often takes precedence over her family, has a baffling vision of a beautiful coworker in Ginny’s own bed and begins to doubt the solidity of her marriage. Ginny’s husband, Mark, a wildlife scientist, sees a vision that suggests impending devastation and grows increasingly paranoid, threatening the safety of his wife and son. Samara, a young woman desperately mourning the recent death of her mother and questioning why her father seems to be coping with such ease, witnesses an apparition of her mother healthy and vibrant and wonders about the secrets her parents may have kept from her. Cass, a brilliant scholar struggling with the demands of new motherhood, catches a glimpse of herself pregnant again, just as she’s on the brink of returning to the project that could define her career.

At first, the visions are relatively benign, but they grow increasingly disturbing - and, in some cases, frightening. When a natural disaster threatens Clearing, it becomes obvious the visions were not what they first seemed and that the town will never be the same.

Startling, deeply imagined, and compulsively listenable, Kate Hope Day’s debut novel is about the choices we make that shape our lives and determine our destinies - the moments that alter us so profoundly that it feels as if we've entered another reality.

Praise for If, Then:

“Hope Day has a lot of sly, stealthy fun with time-bending and parallel universes, but she also has serious things to say on urban paranoia, climate change and the atomized nature of modern life.” (Daily Mail)

“If, Then has the narrative propulsion of a television show... [It’s] a whirlwind of a story.” (Chicago Review of Books)

“Effortlessly meshing the dreamlike and the realistic, [Kate Hope] Day’s well-crafted mix of literary and speculative fiction is an enthralling meditation on the interconnectedness of all things.” (Publishers Weekly)

©2019 Kate Hope Day (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Day’s complex debut explores the mind-bending idea that for every decision made, alternate choices lead to different lives.... Multiverse-theory fans will love the speculation offered in this novel.” (Booklist)

“A suburban drama built to leap from page to screen.” (Kirkus Reviews)

“Effortlessly meshing the dreamlike and the realistic, [Kate Hope] Day’s well-crafted mix of literary and speculative fiction is an enthralling meditation on the interconnectedness of all things.” (Publishers Weekly)

Hard to find a book with a new unique plot. Loved

Enjoyed listening, Excellent performance. Intriguing. One of the best new books out there. Highly recommend.

Unsettling and compelling

The main thing I've noticed going between the written version and audible is there narrator's voice has my mind drifting away from the story. The short amount I physically read in the local bookstore was like a spell where I couldn't look away and was being hypnotically drawn in.

The story felt like watching a show where the picture keeps switching to another reality for just a second every now and then. If this ever makes it to film I'm super curious to see their interpretation.

I hate to ascribe myself a character in books but when Mark is vindicated it felt personal.

Excellent, original

This is an excellent novel, and reading. Original idea, very fully imagined situation and characters, engaging plot with a real arc to it. I couldn't (so to speak) put it down. And very well written, in a lucid style. The author is highly observant. Does male characters as well as the women. I'm adding her to my must-read-whatever-she-publishes-next list. Will also give this novel as a gift to others.

Meh...

An awesome premise for a story, with a poor execution. A story of a multiverse encroaching into our own, where people see echoes of other realities all preceding a natural disaster. It was well written, but really didn't deliver the promised plot. A 2 1/2 to 3 star out of 5 read.

Original story

Loved the original story, the setting in the pacific Northwest. I thought the narration was excellent. A very original story that had a great ending!

Loved the concept, but............

If, Then just never connected with me despite being just the type of book I usually enjoy with themes of parallel universes, time-travel, and a science-based mystery. The book starts out with four neighbors in a small Oregon mountain town seeing momentary visions of themselves in an alternate reality. It reminded me of Robert J. Sawyer's novel Flashforward which I really enjoyed.

There were a number of things that didn't sit with me, beginning with the loathsome character Ginny, an absentee parent, mean boss, and cheating scoundrel who never considers the affects of her infidelity on her young son and husband. And none of the other characters really connected resonated with me. Additionally, there were number of things took place in the book which made no sense and took me out of the story: a mom locking her newborn in her car in a mountain forest to go look or a tent which she saw on a previous trip up the mountain (who does this?), and someone having a hard time looking for a newly constructed underground bunker in their back yard when there would obviously be signs of excavation or at least new grass growing. There were a number of other what-the-hell moments I can think of off the top of my head. Maybe I'm being too nit-picky?

Towards the end I was beginning to get confused about which reality we were in, dead characters were back alive, an empty house were lived in again, etc. Maybe it would've been easier to follow in print?

I loved the concept of the novel, it kept my attention the whole way through, and I thought the ending was good. The audiobook was narrated by Rebecca Lowman who did a great job. But there were too many things that grated on me and I just can't say I liked it. Sorry - unpopular opinion.

Struggled to finish . . .

I rarely write reviews. But, this was one of the worst audible books I've listened to, and I wanted to warn others. The narrator is terrible, the story goes nowhere and I think the only reason I kept listening was to find out if it was all going to come to some profound point at the end. No.