“An innovative and daring reimagining of the literary crime novel.”
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Praise
FROM KIRKUS
A startling double murder shakes a small American town in Kravetz’s debut novel. … A fascinating, potent examination of how a single violent act can spark endless repercussions.
FROM BARRELHOUSE
Some readers of How We Were Before may enjoy the work as an inventive novel that plays with form while mining the emotions of characters at once unexpected and comfortingly familiar. Fiction that can achieve either one of these goals, let alone both, deserves to be relished. Yet How We Were Before is far more than just a spool of engaging yarns plaited into a magical arras. As both a gripping story and also a discerning exploration of the contemporary social landscape, Kravetz’s novel is a fine read for anyone who has ever explored New England’s country towns and rocky farmsteads from the safety of their local library—for all of us who have savored adventures in fields of heirloom corn and seas of steamers and scrod without leaving the hearths of our own imaginations.
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“This is a wise and poignant book.”
— ALICE ELLIOTT DARK, AUTHOR OF FELLOWSHIP POINT AND IN THE GLOAMING, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, RUTGERS-NEWARK, ALICEELLIOTTDARK.COM
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“In an innovative and daring reimagining of the literary crime novel, author Jonathan Kravetz has created a killer novel-in-stories that explores the impact of a brutal home invasion upon the lives of the victims’ surviving relatives and friends. Told with distinctive wit and wisdom, and caulked with flickers of the dead couple’s romance, How We Were Before is the rare work that glides with grace, both forward and backward, through time and emotion. The murdered Blythes might easily be our own neighbors. They might easily be ourselves. Kravetz has created a world that is panoramic and yet touches all too close to home. A brilliant debut.”
— JACOB M. APPEL, AUTHOR OF MILLARD SALTER’S LAST DAY AND MANY OTHER BOOKS OF FICTION AND NONFICTION
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“Death, any death, has a profound ripple effect, but none more than murder. If it takes a village to raise a child, it takes much more than that to process violent, senseless murders. How We Were Before, Jonathan Kravetz’s beautifully crafted collection of interconnected stories focusing on the citizens of a small town where just such murders occur, illustrates how far reaching and profound such a violent act can be. It is the proverbial butterly flapping its wings, changing the world continents away.”
— CHARLES SALZBERG, TWICE NOMINATED SHAMUS AWARD AUTHOR OF DEVIL IN THE HOLE AND SECOND STORY MAN
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“Every murder is a sudden, violent tear in the fabric of humanity with ripple effects that never end. With subtle virtuosity, Kravetz traces these effects in the immediate aftermath of a murder in a small town. How We Were Before is, therefore, only incidentally a murder story. It is a story, first and foremost, about the human condition.”
— MARK GOLDBLATT, AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING CHILDREN’S BOOKS, TWERP AND FINDING THE WORM AS WELL AS MANY BOOKS OF NONFICTION INCLUDING RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB: A MEMOIR OF MANLY CONCERNS
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“Jonathan Kravetz’s How We Were Before is a novel that explores the aftermath and aftershocks of an act of senseless violence. Moving back and forth in time over a span of nearly fifty years and offering the perspectives of a wide range of characters, this book is both immersive and deeply felt. And it pays tribute to the griefs, small and large, that define and shape our lives.”
— NICOLE COOLEY, AUTHOR OF GIRL AFTER GIRL AFTER GIRL AND OF MARRIAGE
When a savage home invasion results in the death of a town's most glamorous couple, the surviving friends and relatives of the victims must navigate the emotional aftermath: Exasperated high school Vice-Principal Zachary Rivers makes a final effort to reach a troubled student. Town librarian, Shelby Blythe—the eldest daughter of the murder victims—begins a correspondence with Billy Lawson, her parents’ murderer. Evelyn Kavanaugh, a retired marketing manager and beloved family friend of the Blythes, embarks on a luxurious cruise as a prelude to suicide. Noam Russell, Billy Lawson’s best friend, returns to Benfield to claim a share of his deceased father’s estate. Samantha Blythe’s maternal attempt to help an employee evokes a renewed desire to connect with her own family.
The spaces between stories are haunted by echoes of the deceased couple's life—from the ignorant bliss of first impressions and great expectations to the tumultuous troubles of middle age, and, finally, an undying hope for reconciliation.