When I Close My Eyes: a successful Hollywood screenwriter is visited by a friend from her past... but is he who he claims to be?

by Jemma Wayne

‘Gripping’ Independent‘Chilling’ Daily Mail‘I honestly didn’t see that ending coming’ Emma Curtis‘Holds you tight and blows you away’ Rachael Blok‘Richly layered’ Naomi Gryn‘This book kept me up until 2am’ Louis de Bernières‘I lost track of time’ Rena Olsen‘Full of sensitively realised emotion’ Literary Review

For so many years it haunted. And in the end, all it took was a decision. One decision.

When an old friend reappears in her life, Hollywood screenwriter Lilith is forced to confront childhood demons that threaten to destroy the world she has created to keep herself – and others – safe.

Can she trust anyone?

Can she even trust herself?

313 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 3, 2022

About the author

Born to an American musician father, and English mother, Jemma grew up in leafy Hertfordshire and studied Social and Political Sciences at Cambridge University and Broadcast Journalism at the University of Westminster. She began her career as a journalist at The Jewish Chronicle and now works freelance splitting her time between journalism, writing for stage, and prose. Her first play, Negative Space, was staged in 2009 at Hampstead's New End Theatre, receiving critical acclaim.

The idea for After Before was first spawned after attending a SURF charity event organised by her husband, in aid of survivors of the Rwandan genocide. It was there that Jemma heard first-hand some of the lingering effects of the 1994 war.