Kindle Unlimited
Unlimited reading. Over 4 million titles. Learn more
OR
Kindle Price: $10.21

Save $4.78 (32%)

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $22.57

Save: $15.08 (67%)

You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.

Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

After the Eclipse: A Memoir Kindle Edition

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 960 ratings

Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.

Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you borrow the Kindle edition of this book with your Kindle Unlimited membership. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. “A heartfelt memoir and a suspenseful story” of a murdered mother (Gabourey Sidibe, Book of the Month Club).
 
When Sarah Perry was twelve, she saw a partial eclipse; she took it as a good omen for her and her mother, Crystal. But that moment of darkness foreshadowed a much larger one: two days later, Crystal was murdered in their home in rural Maine. It took twelve years to find the killer. In that time, Sarah rebuilt her life amid abandonment, police interrogations, and the exacting toll of trauma. She dreamed of a trial, but when the day came, it brought no closure. It was not her mother’s death she wanted to understand, but her life. She began her own investigation, one that drew her back to Maine, deep into the darkness of a small American town. “Pull[ing] the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy” in
After the Eclipse, “Perry succeeds in restoring her mother’s humanity and her own” (The New York Times Book Review).
 
“Raw and perfect . . .
After the Eclipse [has] an eerie, heartbreaking power that it shares with the very best of true crime.” —Laura Miller, Slate

“A gut punch . . . A heartbreaking yet hopeful testament to human resilience.” —Samantha Irby, 
Marie Claire

“With clear, powerful prose, Perry paints a portrait of unconventional motherhood while questioning society’s handling of violence against women. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson’s 
The Red PartsAfter the Eclipse tells the very human story at the center of a needless crime.”—W Magazine
Read more Read less

Editorial Reviews

Review

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice A Best Book of the Year by BookPage A Must-Read Title of the Fall by Entertainment Weekly, W Magazine,  and the Portland Press Herald A Best Nonfiction Title of the Year from Nylon A Great Nonfiction Title of September by Bustle A Notable Nonfiction Debut of the Year by Poets & Writers A Notable Fall Title by Book Reporter A Barnes & Noble Discover Pick A Publisher’s Weekly Pick of the Week “Stunning . . . A graceful and powerful memorial.”—Entertainment WeeklyAfter the Eclipse pulls the reader swiftly along on parallel tracks of mystery and elegy . . . Perry’s scrupulous research and painstaking rendering of her experiences make her a trustworthy guide through such emotionally charged terrain. She’s also a wonderful writer with an assured sense of when to zoom in to her body’s somatic response for a piercing immediacy and when to pull back to convey the measured perspective gained through the distance of time. Many moments of beauty and tenderness rise up through the darkness. In the end, Perry succeeds in restoring her mother’s humanity, and her own.”—Bliss Broyard, New York Times Book Review “A gut punch . . . A heartbreaking yet hopeful testament to human resilience.”—Samantha Irby, Marie Claire “After the Eclipse is both a heartfelt memoir and a suspenseful story. With its many twist and turns, the mystery of this murdered woman and the small town of people who knew and loved her, it feels like I’m reading a prequel to Twin Peaks.”—Gabourey Sidibe, Book of the Month Club “Raw and perfect . . . I’ve never read a better depiction of how a sudden, violent event rips through a human being’s apprehension of reality . . . [It’s] an unfussy, richly textured remembrance of a town, a family, a particular place on the planet that its author knows all the way down to her bones—the strengths of a classic memoir . . . After the Eclipse [has] an eerie, heartbreaking power that it shares with the very best of true crime.”—Laura Miller, Slate “Perry weaves together her painful memories of that night with archival research and journalistic interviews to not only piece together the details of her mother’s death, but illuminate the woman she was before it. With clear, powerful prose, Perry paints a portrait of unconventional motherhood while questioning society’s handling of violence against women. Reminiscent of Maggie Nelson’s The Red Parts, After the Eclipse tells the very human story at the center of a needless crime.”—W Magazine “Profoundly moving . . . Explores the systemic misogyny and classism in small-town America, and revolves around the life of Perry’s mother, Crystal, who shines from the borders of this often unbearably dark story as bright as the sun on a summer day . . . Powerful.”—Nylon “With rich prose, Sarah Perry tackles grief, and how we persevere in the face of tragedy.”—Portland Press Herald  —

About the Author

SARAH PERRY is the author of the memoir After the Eclipse, which was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, a Poets & Writers Notable Nonfiction Debut, and a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers pick. Perry is the recipient of the 2018 Betty Berzon Emerging Writer Award and a fellowship from the Edward F. Albee Foundation. She holds an M.F.A. in nonfiction from Columbia University and is currently teaching in the graduate program in Creative Writing at the University of North Texas. 

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01N32B5YS
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; Reprint edition (September 26, 2017)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 26, 2017
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3106 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 386 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 960 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Sarah Perry
Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
960 global ratings
Courageous literary brilliance
5 Stars
Courageous literary brilliance
I just finished this beautiful piece of literary work and can't stop thinking about it. It gently, even in the gut punch moments, created space for my own healing and offered me courage and hope. As a sexual assault and rape survivor, as the mother of boys, and as a human on this Earth, which is sometimes so dark and also so light...I’m grateful for writers like Sarah Perry who have committed to truth telling with gorgeous writing skills and fierce spirit. I highly recommend this book and any of their other work.
Thank you for your feedback
Sorry, there was an error
Sorry we couldn't load the review

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2017
Don't be put off by the dark subject matter. Perry has taken a story that would have been an unmitigated tragedy in other hands and infused it with warmth, light, and humanity. I'm surprised others have said it's a hard read because page after page I couldn't believe how full of hope this book was. It’s a story about the challenges and hard-won victories of the working poor, about the decisions strong women make under the most unsympathetic circumstances, and the way family ties break down and rebuild in the aftermath of a tragedy.
Perry is both clear-eyed but compassionate toward the people in her book, including the men who passed in and out of her and her mother’s life even as she critiques the way misogyny contributes to violence against women. I’m stunned at how an author who has lived through such darkness has managed to write with such generosity toward so many. I'm stunned at how simultaneously authentic and gentle she is with her readers.
Like Perry, I grew up poor, in rural Maine. It’s a place I worked hard to escape. And yet this book filled me with aching homesickness for both the people and landscape of my childhood. I couldn't put it down.
Read this exceptional book. It’s timely. It’s wonderful.
54 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2024
Twelve years old and on the cusp of adolescence, around the time when many experience this tug of war between childhood dependency and the growing need for independence and separation, Sarah Perry wakes to the horrific cries of her mom being murdered. Understandably, she is torn between her confusion as to what is happening , why, by whom and should she intervene as well as her tremendous fear and desire to stay safe.
My heart aches for the young Sarah; not only for her tremendous loss but for the fact that she really didn't have a soft place to land where she KNEW she was loved AND wanted, where she could be herself, express her fear of the night, her anger and confusion, and her pain. If I'd been her aunt, I'd have just wanted to let her cry, scream, talk etc. I'd have protected her and just known by common sense and instinct that of COURSE nights would be especially hard for this poor girl. I'd have wanted to hug and protect her. I think Tootsie was obviously dealing with her own pain but she wasn't really there for her niece. You don't adopt your niece and then say she is upsetting you so "do you want to go back to Maine now or end of semester?" Then turn around and say "You're leaving now." That is NOT someone deserving of the title of "Aunt" or "family." She and others FAILED Sarah!
The book itself was hard to put down. I have lived in Maine myself for many years and know of the towns mentioned though only been through the area a few times. The story in itself is familiar from the news and compelling. I DO wish that the murder would have been solved much earlier and that people would have been more forthcoming about what they knew if anything.
A solid read!
Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2017
I can’t recommend Sarah Perry’s brilliant and beautiful After the Eclipse highly enough. I haven’t consumed a book so quickly with such attention in a very long time. If you have read any reviews you will know about the act of horrific violence at the heart of this story, but Sarah’s comments in a few interviews that this book is about her “mother who was murdered” not her “mother’s murder” ring true - After the Eclipse goes back generations into the past, tells Crystal’s story, the story of Sarah and Crystal’s life together, and of Sarah’s life growing up and navigating adolescence and adulthood without her mother. After the Eclipse is also an investigation of the spectrum of violence men perpetrate against women - the violence that, whether we have experienced it first hand or not, is always lurking on the periphery of our vision as we go about our business, not just as a threat, but as a sort of ugly promise. The reason we humor the guy at the bar, lest he get angry, or walk to our cars with keys between our fingers. Sarah’s book is wise and clear-eyed in its investigation of the crime and these connections and it is so deserving of all the praise it’s getting from critics. I promise, you will love After the Eclipse. READ THIS BOOK.
12 people found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2018
I'm so glad I heard about this book by chance from a friend of a friend on facebook. I lived in the town right next door to where this crime took place! Only this crime took place 20 years before I lived there, I had no idea. It was haunting to know of all of the towns, landmarks, and roads she spoke of. I was expecting a whodunit and this turned out to be much more of a memoir and a tribute to her mom, the only person who ever really loved her. This was also a suspenseful crime drama. I found myself reading in any spare moment I had and was transported to a small town in Maine so easily. This book was a deep look into the life of Sarah Perry, her struggle to live with guilt, grief, and the unknown after her mother's murder and essentially live it out on her own. A heartbreaking look into the author's life, I found myself wanting to run into her in Maine and give her the biggest hug and look into her eyes saying, "I know your soul, I read your book." This book gripped onto me and I am still thinking of it daily over a week after finishing it. I can't wait to read her next book if there ever is one.
One person found this helpful
Report
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2018
I'm not sure what this book is about. In one way it's a murder mystery but in another it's a memoir. The author seems to be trying to make sense of how her mother's death shaped the person that she's become, and although she writes beautifully, it's a lot of meandering and descriptions of incidents that might have been important to her but that don't move the narrative along. It's a book that is easy to put down and not pick up again. I had to remind myself to finish it.
4 people found this helpful
Report

Top reviews from other countries

Paulina
5.0 out of 5 stars After the Eclipse by sarah perry
Reviewed in Canada on August 3, 2023
Love the storyline give 5 star beautiful ebook by a daughter's love for her mother & took her years to understand it all why someone would kill her mother
Jacqueline Cuthbert
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 7, 2024
Good read had me hooked
Dennis Cardiff
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful, Yet Exquisite Memoir
Reviewed in Canada on January 29, 2019
Thank you, Sarah Perry for a powerful, yet exquisite memoir of a life cut short. I was enthralled from the beginning and felt that I knew the characters. They could have been my neighbors. I also admired your dedicated and thorough research into a painful subject.

You also brought to the fore the very important subject of violence against women. I have talked to many women living on the streets who named sexual abuse and violence as a turning point in their lives. To ease the pain they often turned to drugs, gangs, violence and prostitution. I am proud to befriend them, to listen to their sometimes tearful stories and hold their hands. I wish I could do more.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 14, 2019
Poignant and relevant book
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?