He remembers—every life he's lived before - The One Apart by Justine Avery

"This book is A-MA-ZING!! In my WWW Wednesday post earlier, I mentioned that this book is for fans of The Age of Adaline and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I stand by that. If you loved any of the movies or books, you can’t miss this. Even if you haven’t watched or read any, you should still read this book." - Taiwo, Goodreads

Description: 

Release Date: December 4th, 2017

Cover Artist: Oishii Designs

Only one obstacle stands in his way of enjoying a normal life. He remembers—every life he's lived before.

Tres is about to be born... with the biggest burden any has ever had to bear. He is beginning again—as an ageless adult trapped in an infant body.

He and his teenage mother face life filled with extraordinary challenges as they strive to protect, nurture, and hide how truly different he is. But Tres alone must solve the greatest mystery of all: who is he? The answer is linked to the one question he's too afraid to ask: why am I?

In his quest, Tres discovers that all is considerably more interconnected and dynamic than he could ever imagine—and fraught with far more danger. He cannot hide from the unseen threat stalking him since his birth.

Life as he knows it—as all know it—is in peril. And Tres is the only one aware.

AUTHOR's Q&A

What inspired you to write this book?

For The One Apart, I woke up one morning with just one interesting sentence in mind as an idea for a brand-new story: “he remembered everything.” It felt really impactful, like the fact that this person remembered “everything” was a big deal, that it wasn’t supposed to happen, something went wrong, or maybe, someone would be really upset to discover this person did remember everything. That was it. And that’s my favorite part of writing. I love having no idea what the story is and just writing to uncover it. I wrote two scenes from that idea and set it aside because I was hoping to write a short story and I knew this idea was “a long one.” And two years later, when I sat down to start writing my first novel, I picked up this story idea again. I knew this one was the idea to run with.

Tell us a little bit about the characters in The One Apart.

The story centers around Tres, who realizes, within the first few scenes, that he’s inside the womb, about to be born—and not for the first time. His birth, childhood, and life are all focused on figuring out just who he is, why he was born remembering all his past lives (when no one else is), and what, if anything, it all means. He feels completely out of place, afraid, and struggles with wanting to share with the world and his family who he really is, what he’s really aware of, but he doesn’t want to frighten them or even lose their trust and love for him. He’s welcomed into the world by his teenage mother, Sancha, and grandmother, Maria, both strong female characters with their own fears and struggles who are able to detect Tres’s uniqueness but deal with it very differently. Maria is the matriarch of the family, holding them together through all the challenges and discoveries, while Sancha is childlike herself, all naivety and innocence and youthful bravery. And Tres learns as much from the two of them as his own existence teaches them.

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About the author:

Justine Avery is an award-winning author of stories large and small for all. Born in the American Midwest and raised all over the world, she is inherently an explorer, duly fascinated by everything around her and excitedly noting the stories that abound all around. As an avid reader of all genres, she weaves her own stories among them all. She has a predilection for writing speculative fiction and story twists and surprises she can’t even predict herself. 

Avery has either lived in or explored all 50 states of the union, over 36 countries, and all but one continent; she lost count after moving 30-some times before the age of 20. She’s intentionally jumped out of airplanes and off the highest bungee jump in New Zealand, scuba dived unintentionally with sharks, designed websites, intranets, and technical manuals, bartered with indigenous Panamanians, welded automobile frames, observed at the Bujinkan Hombu Dojo in Noba, Japan, and masterminded prosperous internet businesses—to name a few adventures. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree that life has never required, and at age 28, she sold everything she owned and quit corporate life—and her final “job”—to freelance and travel the world as she always dreamed of. And she’s never looked back. 

Aside from her native English, Avery speaks a bit of Japanese and a bit more Spanish, her accent is an ever-evolving mixture of Midwestern American with notes of the Deep South and indiscriminate British vocabulary and rhythm, and she says “eh”—like the Kiwis, not the Canadians. She currently lives near Los Angeles with her husband, British film director Devon Avery, and their three adopted children: Becks, Sam, and Lia. She writes from wherever her curiosity takes her. 

Avery loves to connect with fellow readers and creatives, explorers and imaginers, and cordially invites you to say “hello”—or konnichiwa. 

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