Time's Mouth

Written by Edan Lepucki

Narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan

Ursa possesses a very special gift. She can travel through memory and revisit her past. After she flees her hometown for the counterculture glory of 1950s California, the intoxicating potential of her unique ability eventually draws a group of women into her orbit and into a ramshackle Victorian mansion in the woods
outside Santa Cruz. Yet Ursa’s powers come with a cost. Soon this cultish community of sisterhood takes an ominous turn, prompting her son, Ray, and his pregnant lover, Cherry, to flee their home for Los Angeles and reinvent themselves far from Ursa’s insidious influence. But escaping their past won’t be so easy. A series of mysterious events forces Cherry to abandon their baby, leaving Ray to raise Opal alone.

Now a teenager and still heartbroken over the abandonment by the mother she never knew, Opal must journey into her own past to reveal the generations of secrets that gave rise to the shimmering source of her family’s painful legacy.

From the forests of Santa Cruz to the 1980s glam of Melrose Avenue to a solitary mansion among the oil derricks off La Cienega Boulevard, and brimming with the double-edged capacity of memory to both heal and harm, Time’s Mouth is a poignant and evocative excavation of the bonds that bind families together.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798889567530

Reviews for Time's Mouth

[Morryah McCurdy · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Felt like it ran on.... Imagery was great and it was an interesting idea but it felt as boring as required reading at times and ultimately felt like large portions could have been cut without changing the character of the story. I finished it though. First read of 2024...

[Benjamin Bernstein · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Exquisitely written from start to finish, this is a time travel story with abundant heart, magical flow, and a happy ending to boot!

[Kathy · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An incredible journey into intergenerational trauma through the experiences of Ursa, Ray, Cherry and Opal. I was not expecting to go where the story took me, and it brought up many feelings about my own life and family. Healing from trauma is nuanced and complicated, and the author fleshed out the characters' lives in a way that honoured that. Everyone has a story.

[Faith · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is one of the most emotion conjuring books I've ever read in my life. I love it! With me having similar issues as a child with a present but absent mother Ray was the character I resonated with the most. His anger the love that he had for his mother mixed with the desire to stay away from her. I hope this book is recommended by therapist all over the world to children with questionable mothers because it will help hopefully put things into perspective and allow forgiveness because no mother is perfect. And yet they are all loved.

[Susan · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Insightful. A wonderful narrative about getting stuck within our family trauma, how that trauma cycle is replayed through the generations until someone breaks it, and the far-reaching repercussions for everyone involved.