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WHAT IF you could go back in time and change the course of history? WHAT IF the watershed moment you could change was the JFK assassination? 11.22.63, the date that Kennedy was shot - unless . . .

King takes his protagonist Jake Epping, a high school English teacher from Lisbon Falls,... read more

Summary edit see section history

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed. What if you could change it back?

In this brilliantly conceived tour de force, Stephen King - who has absorbed the social, political, and popular culture of his generation more imaginatively and thoroughly than any other writer - takes listeners on an incredible journey into the past and the possibility of altering it.

It begins with Jake Epping, a 35-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away: a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than 50 years ago when Harry Dunning's father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life - like Harry's, like America's in 1963 - turning on a dime.

Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession - to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

So begins Jake's new life as George Amberson, in a different world - of Ike and JFK and Elvis, of big American cars and sock hops and cigarette smoke everywhere. From the dank little city of Derry, Maine (where there's Dunning business to conduct), to the warmhearted small town of Jodie, Texas, where Jake falls dangerously in love, every turn is leading, eventually of course, to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and to Dallas, where the past becomes heart-stoppingly suspenseful - and where history might not be history anymore. Time-travel has never been so believable. Or so terrifying.

Characters edit see section history

  • Jake Epping: The novel's protagonist, a thirty-five-year old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. Makes extra money by teaching GED classes. Is recently divorced, and is still adapting to living alone. His alter-ego in the past is George Amberson.
  • Al Templeton: Jake's friend in the present who runs the local diner. He has two secrets to reveal to Jake, which bring about the plot of the entire novel.
  • Harry Dunning: Janitor at the school where Jake Epping teaches. He has a tragic past. Attends a GED class taught by Jake.
  • Sadie Dunhill: The new librarian at the Jodie high school library. She is separated from her husband.
  • Lee Harvey Oswald: Assumed assassin of John F. Kennedy and husband to a Russian immigrant named Marina.
  • John F. Kennedy: American President in 1963 and one of the reasons Jake goes back to change the past.
  • Deke Simmons: Principal of the high school in Jodie. Friend of Jake
  • Yellow Card Man: A mysterious individual who Al and Jake meet at the start of each of their respective journeys.
  • Frank Dunning: Harry Dunning's father.
  • Ellen Dockerty: Deke Simmons' successor as principal at the Jodie High School and friend of George and Sadie.
  • Chaz Frati: Pawnbroker and bookie in Derry, Maine.
  • Green Card Man: See Yellow Card Man (they are the same person)
  • George De Mohrenschildt: Russian emigrant who befriended Oswald who may have a connection to the assassination
  • George Amberson: Jake's alias when in the past.
  • John Clayton: Estranged Husband of Sadie Dunhill
  • Mimi Corcoran: Deke Simmons' girlfriend and librarian of the high school in Jodie.
  • George Bouhe: A Russian emigrant who assisted Lee and Marina in getting settled in Fort Worth in 1962.
  • James Hosty: FBI agent who investigates the attempted murder of JFK.
  • Bill Turcotte: A man living in Derry who also has an interest in Frank Dunning.
  • Christy Epping: Jake's former wife in the present.
  • Father Bandy: Came to Harry's graduation in the present time and gave the benediction.
  • Gloria: Add a description of this character.
  • Frank Anicetti: The proprietor of the Kennebec Fruit Company in the past.
  • Leola: A customer in one of the first businesses George goes to when he is back in time.
  • Lorraine: The employee George deals with when he opens a checking account in 1958.
  • George Dusen: Assistant Manager at the Hometown Trust where George opens an account.
  • Patrick Hocksetter: The latest of a number of kids who were murdered in The Barrens in the past in Derry.
  • Dorsey Corcoran: A young boy who was killed by his father.
  • Dicky Macklin: The step-father of Dorsey Corcoran.
  • Fred Toomey: A bartender George meets and who gives George information about the town and the residents.
  • Regina Starrett: The librarian in Derry who gives George some history of the residents.
  • Marcia Guay: A woman who George meets at the U.S. Census Bureau.
  • Troy Dunning: A fifteen-year-old boy who George hopes to do something that will change his history.
  • Beverly Marsh: A young person who George meets in Derry.
  • Richie Tozier: Beverly's dance partner in Derry.
  • Mr. Currie: Manager at the Center Street Market.
  • Tony Tracker: With his brother, he owns a freight hauling company.
  • Phil Tracker: Tony's brother. They own a freight hauling company.
  • Norbert Keene: Proprietor of Center Street Drug.
  • Keith Henry: Real Estate agent for the house for sale that's located behind the Dunning's.
  • Randy Baker: A mechanic who helps George with his car.
  • Andrew Cullum: A man who George spends time with and changes his history.
  • Marnie Cullum: Andrew's wife.
  • Hattie Wilkerson: A librarian who is friendly toward George.
  • Ray Mack Johnson: George's landlord in North Dallas.
  • Ivy Templeton: A woman who lived near Oswald for a short time.
  • Coach Borman: Football coach at the school George teaches at in Texas.
  • Donald Bellingham: A sophomore and the master of ceremonies at the school Sadie Hawkins dance.
  • Johnny Clayton: Sadie's estranged husband.
  • Bobby Jill Allnut: A student at George's school and Mike Coslaw's girlfriend.
  • Mike Coslaw: A student and football player at George's school in Texas.
  • Carl Jacoby: A shop teacher who teaches graphic design.
  • Vince Knowles: Student in a play directed by George. Football player. Friend of Mike and Jim.
  • Marjorie Frati: Chaz's wife.
  • Ellen Dunning: Harry's little sister
  • Doris Dunning: Harry's mother
  • Arthur "Tugga" Dunning: Harry's brother
  • Jessica Caltrops: Member of the school board.
  • Jim La Due: Star football player at the school where George teaches
  • Erin Tolliver: Present day student from Texas, who gets Jake thinking of Sadie
Show all 60 characters
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Quotes edit see section history

  • “Besides, there's an old saying: 'peek not through a knothole, lest ye be vexed.' Was there ever a bigger knothole in human history than the internet?”
    Jake Epping
  • “Making the world a better place is important, but so is being able to get to the john under your own power.”
    Al Templeton
  • “Asking questions that you don't have answers is a waste of time, and I don't have much.”
    Al Templeton
  • “This was bullsh*t, but if you're going to lay it on, my father used to say, you might as well lay it on thick.”
    Narrator
  • “But stupidity is one of two things we see most clearly in retrospect. The other is missed chances.”
    Jake Epping
  • “Resistance to change is proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act, I had told Al in my best school-lecture voice, and it was true.”
    Jake Epping
  • “The past is obdurate. It doesn't want to be changed.”
    Jake Epping
  • “For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don't we all secretly know this? It's a perfectly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.”
  • “How we danced!”
    Sadie Dunhill
  • “Because the past is sly as well as obdurate. It fights back”
  • “For a moment everything was clear, and when that happens you see that the world is barely there at all. Don't we all secretly know this? It's a perferctly balanced mechanism of shouts and echoes pretending to be wheels and cogs, a dreamclock chiming beneath a mystery-glass we call life. Behind it? Below it and around it? Chaos, storms. Men with hammers, men with knives, men with guns. Women who twist what they cannot dominate and belittle what they cannot understand. A universe of horror and loss surrounding a single lighted stage where mortals dance in defiance of the dark.”
  • “We never know which lives we influence, or when, or why. Not until the future eats the present, anyway. We know then it's too late.”
  • “The suit would go well with the roses she'd be handed at Love Field, not so well with the blood which would splatter the skirt and her stockings and shoes.”
    Jake
  • “Scaring people is a dirty job, but somebody has to do it.”
    Jake
Show all 14 quotes from this book

Setting & Locations edit see section history

Irving, Texas
Show all 35 settings

Organizations edit see section history

  • Federal Bureau of Investigation: Popularly known by its initials as the FBI, it is an US national security organization. Its mission is to protect and defend the United States against terrorist and foreign intelligence threats, to uphold and enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and to provide leadership and criminal justice services to federal, state, municipal, and international agencies and partners.
  • Central Intelligence Agency: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

I have never been what you’d call a crying man.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Part One: Watershed Moment
Part Two: The Janitor's Father
Part Three: Living in the Past
Part Four: Sadie and the General
Part Five: 11/22/63
Part Six: The Green Card Man

Glossary edit see section history

  • Musterole: The MUSTEROLE CO., manufacturer of a famous over-the-counter ointment, began in 1905 after pharmacist A. L. McLaren developed a mustard ointment at his Cedar and E. 97th St. drugstore. Precursor to today's Vicks VapoRub.
  • Moxie: Moxie is a carbonated beverage that was one of the first mass-produced soft drinks in the United States. It continues to be regionally popular today.
  • Cribbage: Cribbage, or crib, is a card game traditionally for two players, but commonly played with three, four, or more, that involves playing and grouping cards in combinations which gain points. Cribbage has several distinctive features: the cribbage board used for scorekeeping, the eponymous crib or box (a separate hand counting for the dealer), two distinct scoring stages (the play and the show) and a unique scoring system including points for groups of cards that total fifteen.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 1 of 14 in New York Times Bestsellers - Hardcover Fiction (Current). (authoritative list)
This book is in Amazon.com Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in Kirkus Reviews: Best Fiction of 2011. (authoritative list)
This is book 2 of 10 in Publishers Weekly Bestselling Novels in 2011. (authoritative list)
This book is in 2011 Published Books. (community list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Stephen King (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Scribner
Country: USA
Publication Date: November 8, 2011
ISBN: 9781451627282
Page Count: 853

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: PS3561.I483 A615 2011
  • Dewey: 813.54

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Lots of strong language, sexual situations, violence and other content that wouldn't be appropriate to anyone 15 or younger.

More Books Like This edit see section history

   
  • The Ninth Orphan
  • Time and Again
  • Replay
  • American Tabloid
  • The Cold Six Thousand
  • The Number of the Beast
  • Sherlock Holmes in Dallas
  • It
  • Prologue
  • Appointment in Dallas: The Final Solution to the Assassination of JFK
  • Slam the Big Door
  • The Illuminatus! Trilogy

Books with Additional Background Information edit see section history

   
  • It
  • JFK
  • On the Trail of the Assassins
  • Praise from a Future Generation: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy and the First Generation Critics of the Warren Report

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history

   
  • The Catcher in the Rye
  • A Reliable Wife
  • Twelve Angry Men
  • The Day the Earth Stood Still and Other Classic SF Novellas
  • Last Exit to Brooklyn
  • The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Jude the Obscure
  • Slam the Big Door
  • Of Mice and Men
  • Bleak House
  • A Sound of Thunder
  • West Side Story
  • Atlas Shrugged
  • Tess of the d'Urbervilles

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