Redel has crafted a lyrical ode to female friendship, proving that bonds can somehow be made of iron and elastic, sometimes strong and sometimes frail. She fleshes out the five main characters admirably for such a short book, linking each of their most vulnerable memories to their shared crisis. Fans of Anne Tyler and Jennifer Close will adore this warmhearted and clear-eyed novel.
Booklist
A touching story of friendship and loss . . . richly realized. The result is an unflinching and affecting look at how one woman's final days change the lives of those around her.
Publishers Weekly
I admire Victoria Redel's work for so many reasons-for its fearlessness, its complexity, its beauty-and Before Everything is one of the most brilliant, radiant, and heartbreaking books I've read in years. Redel's characters-fierce and funny, loyal and compassionate-feel as real and beloved as the people we hold dearest in our own lives. An extraordinary novel by one of the best writers we have.
Molly Antopol, author of The UnAmericans Victoria Redel bears witness to a remarkable group of women, effortlessly weaving back and forth through time, each thread revealing the cracks and secrets of their complex lives, while also drawing them closer. . . . Redel proves that female friendship is the quiet, steady engine that truly runs the world.
Hannah Tinti, author of The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley Brings to mind Virginia Woolf's The Waves.
BBC Culture
Bittersweet
Grazia
Poetic and insightful ... I have been blown away.
Laura Jane Williams, author of Becoming An extraordinary, touching and tender story about female friendship.
Prima Magazine
Gorgeous, a heartbreaker, a non-stop dazzler, a major achievement.
Michael Cunningham, Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Hours Before Everything is a riveting, timely story that explores the unsettlingly beautiful, emotionally charged landscape that is revealed when old friends embrace what they have never before admitted: the limits of mortality and the boundlessness of friendship.
Ruth Ozeki A riveting celebration of life and death.
Elle Magazine
Terminal illness doesn't always bring out the best in people, nor does it preclude other sorrows. To find an honest and sympathetic reflection of both truths is refreshing.
Daily Mail
Before Everything turns on the grand themes, love and death. Redel's elegant narration unfolds not in linear time but in the time of memory, moving among the friends to reveal their shifting connections, needs, and circumstances. At once tough and tender, funny and sad, this beautifully written novel articulates the dynamic realities of those wondrous friendships that last a lifetime.
Siri Hustvedt An unflinching and affecting look at how one woman's final days change the lives of those around her.
Publishers Weekly
Poetic and insightful ... I have been blown away.
Laura Jane Williams, author of Becoming
Brings to mind Virginia Woolf's The Waves.
BBC Culture
A riveting celebration of life and death.
Elle Magazine
An extraordinary, touching and tender story about female friendship.
Prima Magazine
Bittersweet
Grazia
Terminal illness doesn't always bring out the best in people, nor does it preclude other sorrows. To find an honest and sympathetic reflection of both truths is refreshing.
Daily Mail
Redel's prose is artful and insightful ... this is a hugely moving celebration of love, life and friendship.
Eithne Farry
S Magazine