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    The Innocent Sleep: A Novel
    The Innocent Sleep: A Novel
    The Innocent Sleep: A Novel
    Audiobook9 hours

    The Innocent Sleep: A Novel

    Written by Karen Perry

    Narrated by Aaron Abano and Michelle Ferguson

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    "How good's the big twist? You won't see it coming."—Entertainment Weekly

    "Terrific…an unpredictable and unsettling familial drama that has drawn comparisons to the novels of Gillian Flynn and fellow Dubliner Tana French."—Kirkus Reviews

    When a couple's lost child resurfaces they are forced to embark on a journey into their shared past—one rife with dark secrets and lies

    Tangiers. Harry is preparing his wife's birthday dinner while she is still at work and their son, Dillon, is upstairs asleep in bed. Harry suddenly remembers that he's left Robin's gift at the café in town. It's only a five minute walk away and Dillon's so tricky to put down for the night, so Harry decides to run out on his own and fetch the present.

    Disaster strikes. An earthquake hits, buildings crumble, people scream and run. Harry fights his way through the crowd to his house, only to find it razed to the ground. Dillon is presumed dead, though his body is never found.

    Five years later, Harry and Robin have settled into a new kind of life after relocating to their native Dublin. Their grief will always be with them, but lately it feels as if they're ready for a new beginning. Harry's career as an artist is taking off and Robin has just realized that she's pregnant.

    But when Harry gets a glimpse of Dillon on the crowded streets of Dublin, the past comes rushing back at both of them. Has Dillon been alive all these years? Or was what Harry saw just a figment of his guilt-ridden imagination? With razor-sharp writing, Karen Perry's The Innocent Sleep delivers a fast-paced, ingeniously plotted thriller brimming with deception, doubt, and betrayal.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Audio
    Release dateFeb 18, 2014
    ISBN9781427241337
    The Innocent Sleep: A Novel
    Author

    Karen Perry

    Karen Perry is the pen name of Dublin-based authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece. Together they wrote Girl Unknown. Paul Perry is the author of a number of critically acclaimed books. A recipient of the Hennessy Award for New Irish Writing, he teaches creative writing at University College, Dublin. Karen Gillece is the author of several critically acclaimed novels. In 2009 she won the European Union Prize for Literature (Ireland).

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    Reviews for The Innocent Sleep

    3.5/5

    77 ratings19 reviews

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    • 4/5
      The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry is a deliciously dark, bold, and complex novel which will grab the reader from the beginning and not let go. Perry has not only created a clever psychological suspense novel taking the reader from Tangier to Dublin, but also delightfully complex characters believable and yet flawed I highly recommend The Innocent Sleep to readers and book groups alike.
    • 3/5
      Read under the title of 'The Boy That Never Was'
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this. It was well written and the story told by alternating between the husband and wife as to the disappearance of their child. It was more unusual than the typical missing child story. Great narrators too.
    • 3/5
      The Innocent Sleep by Karen Perry (Karen Perry is the pen name of Dublin-based authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece). The story starts out in Tangiers, Morocco. The couple are living there as artists, and they have a son. He dies in an earthquake and they move back to Ireland where she is an architect and he is an artist. Harry is unsympathetic character with a lot of things to fault him for. It's a mystery so not to give anything away. The couple are trying to get on with their lives. Harry believes his son is still alive, Robyn believes he died in an earthquake. The book would be considered a psychological thriller with a few twists and turns, not so much that you can't guess what's going to happen. I wasn't overly impressed with this one, didn't feel that believable but it was for my f2f book club and it wasn't difficult to finish. Rating 2.625
    • 4/5
      Das junge Künstlerpaar Robin und Harry lebt mit seinem kleinen Sohn Díllon in Tanger. Bei einem Erdbeben, bei dem das Haus einstürzt, ist Dillon allein in der Wohnung. Seine Leiche wird nie gefunden, aber es ist klar, dass er tot sein muss. Sein Vater Harry glaubt allerdings nicht daran. Als er fünf Jahre später in Dublin glaubt, den Jungen zu erkennen, setzt er alles aufs Spiel um ihn zu finden.Das Buch lebt von der unterschwelligen Spannung: Ist Harry nun ein verantwortungsloser, unsympathischer Verrückter oder ist etwas dran an der Geschichte? Hat Robin auch etwas zu verbergen? Welche Rolle spielt der geheimnisvolle Freund Cosimo? Was wird passieren, wenn Harry den Jungen findet? Ich fand das Buch konstruiert, aber auch wirklich sehr packend.
    • 3/5
      We all take risks every day. When we do it consciously, we weigh up the chances that something will go horribly wrong and having determined the odds are with us that nothing bad will happen, we do whatever it is we've been considering. But what about that slim percentage of times that the unthinkable does in fact happen? How do we live with ourselves, knowing that we chose the risk that led to terrible loss or tragedy or regret? And what happens if we can't accept it? These questions and more swirl through the tense plot of Karen Perry's (the pen name for authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece) novel, The Innocent Sleep. Harry and Robin are artists who have settled in Tangiers because of the quality of light. They have settled into their chosen community there and have a three year old son Dillon. He's not the easiest of toddlers,incredibly difficult to settle into sleep and so when, on the eve of Robin's birthday, Harry realizes that he hasn't picked up her present, just a five minute walk away, he leaves the sleeping child in their flat and goes to collect it. It was at that moment that the world cracked open. An earthquake ravages Tangiers and the building where they had lived is leveled. Dillon's body is never found. Living in Dublin five years on, Harry and Robin are trying to carve a new life out of the rubble of the old. Robin is newly pregnant and working as an architect while Harry is giving up his stand alone studio and moving his work back into the garage thanks to the economic stresses of the time. But on his final day at the studio, he has to make his way through a rally where he spots a young boy he is convinced is Dillon. Harry had searched and searched for his son after the earthquake, always certain that no body meant that the boy had survived and now that he's seen him on the street, he cannot rest until he tracks this child down. He is completely obsessed. While Robin doesn't believe him, the cursory reappearance of a child who could be Dillon unravels their carefully constructed new life. Secrets and lies emerge, guilt rears its head again, and innocence has to be redefined. The tale of their life in Tangiers changes from one of artistic fulfillment and familial happiness ending in enormous grief to one of furtiveness, illicitness, and infidelity. And the unwritten story of their future metamorphoses right before the reader's eyes as both Harry an Robin's secrets are revealed. The story is told in an alternating first person narrative so that both Harry and Robin can tell the story directly and neither of them are entirely truthful with the reader until they have to be. The pacing of the novel is uneven, very slow in the beginning but building tension quickly towards the end and the plot itself felt drawn out. The surprising ending comes after a hysterical, frantic crescendo. And while it would seem as if parents who have lost a child and are devastated by their loss should be sympathetic characters, they weren't really. In fact, there are really no good guys here. Not even relatable guys. The story does raise issues of the bounds of creativity, all-consuming grief and obsession, mental illness, the limits of forgiveness, and horrifying regret over wrong choices but it couches it all in choices that are hard, if not impossible, to overlook.
    • 4/5
      This is a psychological thriller that explores the effect of lies & secrets on a marriage. It's also one hell of a roller coaster ride.
      We first meet Harry & Robin in Tangier. It's 2005, the night of Robin's birthday & their lives are about to change forever. I don't want to give too much away but Harry makes some choices prior to an earthquake hitting the area that result in the loss of Dillon, their 3 year old son. No remains were ever found in the pile of rubble that used to be their home.
      Fast forward to 2010 Dublin where Harry & Robin have recently moved into her grandparents' old house. Much like their marriage, it's a little worn around the edges, in need of repair.
      They met in art college about 15 years ago. After graduating, they travelled, painting the people & places they saw. Seduced by the culture & beautiful light in Tangier, they settled there & soon had a group of friends including the enigmatic Cozimo. After losing Dillon, Robin returned to Ireland but Harry stayed on, searching & filing reports with every agency he could think of. Eventually he went home to Dublin. But his obsession with finding Dillon alive led to a breakdown & landed him in hospital.
      Robin nursed him back to mental health & he started to paint again. But Robin put away her brushes & trained as an architect. Money is tight in these times of austerity & in an effort to save some cash, Harry closes his studio to work at home. Walking back that last day, he gets caught up in a crowd of demonstrators. In the midst of the chaos, he spots a young boy....a boy who looks just like Dillon.
      This is the start of an extremely complex & twisted plot. Both Harry & Robin have major secrets they've kept from each other & one by one they're exposed as Harry disintegrates, caught up in his obsession again. The author does an admirable job of portraying their grief & guilt and you sympathize with their situation. But there are also times when it's really hard to like either of them. As the history of the 5 years spent in Tangier is slowly revealed in flashbacks, you learn neither of them is blameless & bad decisions made then are directly responsible for what is unfolding now.
      There are many peripheral characters in both periods & more than once I was fooled when I thought I knew the good guys from the bad, who was right & who was wrong. It's an intricate, action packed story impossible to summarize & all I'll say about the ending is 2 things: in the last few pages there is a twist I never saw coming & the finale left me gutted.
      If someone had recommended this novel to me, saying it was the story of a couple trying to get over the loss of a child, I would have smiled...thanked them...and put it back on the shelf. Don't be fooled. This is so much more & would make an excellent choice for a book club.
    • 4/5
      Irish authors Karen Gillece and Paul Perry, writing as Karen Perry, have created a dark mystery with plenty of tension, with a minatory tone from the very first chapter.The story begins with a literal earthquake in Tangier in 2005 in which husband and wife Harry and Robin lose their three-year-old son Dillon. The ground continues to shift under this husband and wife as their lives unfold five years later in Dublin, and their relationship has definitely undergone a seismic upheaval. Told alternately from each of their perspectives, we learn that truth is on a slippery slope with these two, and trust is a topic best left unexplored.While this plot might sound like Gone Girl and is in some ways reminiscent of it, the characters in this book are somewhat more likable, or at least, more realistic.Evaluation: This psychological thriller is a page-turner, and appears seamless in spite of being a collaboration between two writers. There are some great twists that will provide plenty of discussion for book clubs.
    • 4/5
      Harry and Robin, both artists and Irish ex-pats, are living with their three-year-old son, Dillon, in Tangiers. Harry decides to leave the sleeping toddler alone while he runs a quick errand. While he is gone, the building is razed by an earthquake. Although Dillon’s body is not found, he is presumed dead. Move forward five years and the couple has returned to Dublin. Robin is doing her best to move on. She has given up her art for architecture and is trying to get past her grief and anger at Harry. On the surface, Harry seems to be doing better. His art is gaining a bit of success and he doesn’t talk about Dillon so much. However, he’s started drinking heavily, engaging in illicit affairs, visiting psychics, and drawing secret portraits of Dillon that show him at different ages. Then, one day, he spots a child on the streets of Dublin and he is convinced he is Dillon. He begins to secretly search for him but when he elicits help in his search and when he eventually tells a now-pregnant Robin about his ‘evidence’ of Dillon’s existence, he can’t convince anyone that this isn’t just a sign that he is having a mental breakdown. It is clear to everyone but Harry that he is seeing what he wants to see out of his sense of guilt and grief.But Harry won’t be dissuaded. He ‘knows’ what he saw and he ‘knows’ he will find his son. But things are not what they seem. As he races to prove Dillon is alive, he sets in motion events rooted in the past and which might better have been left there. Not only does his search threaten his marriage but possibly even his life.The Innocent Sleep is the debut novel by Karen Perry (actually the writing team of Karen Gillece and Paul Perry). The narrative is divided between Harry and Robin and occasionally other characters. The story builds slowly as these characters tell us what really happened and, as secrets are revealed, the story quickly picks up steam as it rushes to its surprising and shocking end – one I can honestly say ‘I didn’t see that coming’. It is a tale of great loss and bad decisions, of secrets and infidelities, of the bonds that hold families together and the tragedies that break them apart and it is one heck of a compelling psychological thriller.
    • 3/5
      I think this might be one of those love it or hate it books.The premise is intriguing - a young boy disappears in the aftermath of an earthquake and is presumed dead. Years later his father sees him on the street in another country. There are also plenty of twists you probably won't see coming.I would have loved the plotting, if only I could have cared about the characters. Don't get me wrong, I don't have to like a character to love a book (e.g. Gone Girl) . But the most I could summon for both main characters was a mild dislike. That lack of emotional connection kind of ruined the book for me.
    • 4/5
      The setting of Tangiers is what first drew me to this book, but many other things kept me avidly reading. I originally thought Harry was a very easy character to dislike, quite frankly I found him to be somewhat of a jerk. Felt so sorry for his wife, but of course things were not quite what they seemed. An earthquake, a destroyed building and a dead child sent this couple reeling, and they returned to Dublin to try to make a fresh start.Many, many revelations, some stellar writing, twists and turns, and secrets kept me turning the pages. A novel of deceit, of the past coming back to haunt the future all make this one very good debut novel. Definitely a author I will be watching. ARC from Netgalley.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of this book for free from LibraryThing’s Early Reviewer Program for review purposes, all opinions expressed below are my own.So to begin, overall this is a thrill-a-minute book that slowly reveals itself to a pulse-pounding, nearly unbelievable conclusion.I guess I have to really start with the entire notion that a parent would leave their young son in bed asleep and go out and down the street. I don’t care if it’s 3 blocks down or next door, you just don’t do that. So from the beginning I had a really big problem with Harry’s character. I simply could not trust him after that revelation. And then there’s Robin. I was so fed up with her character because she continued to stay with Harry after he not only left Dillon alone asleep in bed but there was another big revelation that is just absolutely unforgivable. What kind of woman could really stay with a man like Harry? Well as the reader continues, it becomes very obvious that not everyone is as perfect as they appear. Robin has some pretty nasty stuff in her past as well. They’re both incredibly flawed characters. But it works for some reason.So how on earth could I possibly like a book that I was really disgusted by the two main characters? I simply cannot answer that question. But for whatever reason, it works. The psychological mind twist that goes on throughout this book really makes you want to keep reading. I had to know what happened. I had to know if Harry was losing his mind. I had to know if Dillon could really be alive.And then the ending … the last page. Just, wow. There’s a huge twist that I never saw coming and left me with a little lukewarm feeling. Personally it felt unnecessary and more than a little unbelievable if you ask me. Unnecessary, that’s really the best word that I can use for the ending. But please don’t let this change your decision to read this book, because it’s a good read.This is just one of those books that words can’t adequately describe. You have to really read it to understand it. I can’t say much more about it without giving away entirely too much. Just read it. Seriously.
    • 5/5
      This novel blew me right out of my chair with a double whammy!the book starts out slowly, building into a dark, break your heart psychological thriller. You have no idea what is to come but, hang in there because it is worth the ride. Artists Harry & Robin are living a good life in Tangier, Harry is getting ready to celebrate his wife, Robin's birthday until he realizes he has left the present he got for her earlier in town so, he decides that while his 3 yr. old son Dillon is sleeping he will just run the few blocks to go pick it up.... This spur of the moment decision changes his family's life forever. This is a story of how secrets and lies kept from your partner can blow up in unexpected ways you could never imagine. There are a few shady characters along the way that add to the tension but, I don't want to give to much away so I will just say, you need to read this book!
    • 4/5
      This is a hard book for me to review. It is so well plotted and beautifully written, there are so many layers peeled slowly back via chapters that alternate voice between Harry and Robin, but on balance it was just not my type, it was too fraught with guilt, blame, and emotion. I read it twice in order to see if I could have done better at seeing around the curves—sometimes yes, sometimes no. Sleep, or lack of it, is a force in driving the plot here—“sleep deprivation does strange things to a person”-- and Tangier and the expat community there also come alive and make the very unlikely events that set up the story somewhat more plausible. Pacing is terrific—you’ll keep reading and the uneasy feelings you have will only deepen as the story unfolds. Great ending too, did not see that coming and I’m still puzzling over what it might mean about how to interpret what happened earlier.
    • 4/5
      If you like Tana French or Sophie Hannah, you'll love this psychological thriller. From the first few pages, you realize there is more here than meets the eye. As the story builds, around the middle of the book, I began to get a hint of what was really going on. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Thanks Early Reviewers for the opportunity!
    • 3/5
      Reading everyone else's reviews I should like this more than I do.For all those that feel like giving up, don't it is really good after you understand the rhythm of the author. But for me it lost its steam after it's final twist......
    • 4/5
      Robin and Harry and their son, Dillon, live in Tangier, Morocco, where the parents are artists [well, Harry is -- Robin is pretty much supporting the family by waitressing]. Robin is out working one night when Harry determines he needs to run out on a quick errand, leaving Dillon asleep in their flat. The unthinkable happens: an earthquake hits and Dillon is killed, although his body is never found. Harry and Robin move back to their native Ireland, where they struggle to keep their marriage alive; Harry even spends time in a mental hospital dealing with his grief and guilt. When he is released, his art starts to become successful, and Robin is pregnant again.Then one day, during a protest in Dublin, Harry sees a boy he is convinced is Dillon, with a strange woman. What follows is [more] strain on Harry and Robin's marriage, as well as a couple of twists that the author pulls off with great success. I really enjoyed this book -- definitely a keeper for re-reading.
    • 5/5
      Incredible! This book had me hooked by the very first pages and never stopped drawing me further and further into the story. What luck to have this to read as one of my last books of 2013! The characters were very vividly drawn, particularly Harry, but even secondary characters such as Spencer and Cozimo were clear to me. I felt sorry for, feared, and disliked Harry all at the same time. I think that's pretty good characterization. I thought the alternating voices in chapters was handled very well and I liked it, for some reason it made the book more intimate. I loved the settings, particularly in Tangier, and again liked the back-and-forth switch between the places. And the ending. The ending sent chills up my spine.I don't think I've ever read a book with a story line like this before and I'm really happy I had the chance to read The Innocent Sleep. Can you tell I liked this book?
    • 5/5
      Got this from librarything.com as an advanced copy.This book was terrific. Loved the storyline and it was beautifully written. I've never read any books from this duo, but maybe this is their first written together. The story has a creepy, bad feeling and even though it starts already with something bad happening, you don't really know how it comes to pass and what the consequences are. I want to comment on the ending, but don't want to give anything away. There is a certain ambiguity. I would read more books from these authors. (As a side note, since this was an advanced copy, there are usually a lot of typos or grammar mistakes in these books. This book had none until the last couple chapters, so that made it easier to read in a way.)