BookBrowse Reviews Time's Mouth by Edan Lepucki

Edan Lepucki's novel Time's Mouth explores how trauma can linger in a family, its effects passed down through successive generations. At the age of sixteen, Sharon discovers she can transport herself into her past, beginning with her reliving the "happiest day of her life" – the day of her father's funeral, three years earlier. She finds she's able to observe and feel what her younger self is feeling, but not to change the scene in any way. As her ability to time travel improves, she decides to run away from home, abandoning the mother who did nothing to protect her from abuse. She moves to California, adopts the name Ursa, and ultimately creates a cult, her power drawing other women with troubled pasts. The novel's focus then shifts to Ray, Ursa's son, and Cherry, another child born on the cult's compound, who in turn abandon Ursa in search of a "normal life" together. Finally, ...