What if you could go back in time and investigate your family’s secrets? Would it make things better? Would it make you better? Or worse?
A page-turning family story of an all-female commune deep in the Santa Cruz woods—and the secret powers some of the women there hold—by New York Times bestselling author Edan Lepucki, the queen of California dystopian magic.
The paperback ofTime’s Mouth releases 8.6.24
“Edan Lepucki’s new novel is an astonishing achievement. Written in crystalline prose that is as wise as it is witty,Time’s Mouth left me breathless with admiration.”
— Dan Chaon, author of Sleepwalk
“Novels likeTime’s Mouth are rare: it's both delightful and emotional. Beyond the pleasures of time-travel, all-female cults, and an ominous look at California’s legacy of mysticism, the heart ofTime’s Mouth is a story of mothers and daughters. Edan Lepucki writes with insight and deep pathos about the gifts and curses passed down over generations, and of time’s ability not only to injure but to heal.”
—Stephanie Danler, author of Sweetbitter
Photo Credit: Ralph Palumbo
Edan Lepucki
Edan Lepucki is the author of the novella If You’re Not Yet Like Me and the novels California, Woman No. 17, and Time’s Mouth, which was longlisted for the Joyce Carol Oates prize and named Book of the Week by People Magazine.
California debuted at #3 on the New York Times Bestseller List and was a #1 bestseller on the Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle bestsellers lists. California was a fall 2014 selection of Barnes & Noble’s Discover Great New Writers program.
Woman No. 17 received rave reviews from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications, and was #3 on Entertainment Weekly’s Must List. People Magazine’s books editor Kim Hubbard selected Woman No. 17 for the Book of the Month Club. It was named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, PopSugar, and The Maine Edge.
Edan created the popular Instagram Mothers Before, and she edited a book inspired by the project, published by Abrams Press in 2020.
Edan is a graduate of Oberlin College and the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and her fiction and nonfiction have been published in The Atlantic, Esquire, the New York Times Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Cut, Romper, and McSweeney’s, among other publications. The Los Angeles Times named her a Face to Watch for 2014. She was the guest editor of Best American Nonrequired Reading 2019 and her story “People in Hell Want Ice Water” is available as an Audible Original.
“Edan Lepucki's engrossing third novel tackles so much about the physical and psychic terrain of California, with its hippies and hipsters, its oil derricks and redwoods. It’s a beautiful book about a much-mythologized place, but its heart lives much closer to home: in the real and complex bond between parent and child.”
—Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind
