Sleep

By: Honor Jones

Published by Penguin Group, 2026-05-12

Named a Best Book of the Year by Oprah’s Book Club and Real Simple “Incredibly moving." – Ann Patchett “Propulsive and funny and heartbreaking.” —J. Courtney Sullivan "An exceptionally moving novel. Jones takes her cues from writers like John Cheever, Richard Yates and Virginia Woolf."—The New York Times "Profoundly beautiful."— NPR Every parent exists inside of two families simultaneously–the one she was born into, and the one she has made. The surface of Margaret’s childhood is one of sunlit swimming pools and Saturday morning pancakes until, late one summer, she wakes to a new kind of peril, and the simple pleasures of girlhood slip away. Twenty-five years later, Margaret is newly divorced, discovering the pleasures of a new lover, and navigating her life as a co-parent when she brings her daughters back to the house where she was raised. As the past encroaches on the present, Margaret reckons with questions about how much of our lives are our own and what it takes to keep a child safe. Warm and generous, sexy and full of humor, Sleep is dazzling in its wisdom about the cycles of motherhood and childhood, the cost of secrets, and the burdens and gifts of love.