While I Was Gone is a 1999 novel by Sue Miller. It was chosen as an Oprah's Book Club selection in May 2000. Miller conceived of While I Was Gone while in the middle of writing a memoir of her father's battle with Alzheimer's disease. Struggling with this story, she decided to return to writing fiction, deciding upon a story about a woman torn between her past and present lives. Miller was also influenced by the murder trial of O. J. Simpson and the investigation of a 15-year-old boy in Boston, charged with allegedly killing one of his friends' mothers.
Adaptations (1)
While I Was Gone was adapted into a 2004 television film.
While I Was Gone2004 · television film · 90 min · dir. Mike Robe · IMDb ↗IMDb4.9Jo Beckett leads a comfortable life with a successful veterinary practice, a devoted husband, and a beautiful home in a lovely small town outside of Boston. Still, she is strangely dissatisfied with her life. One afternoon, a man brings his dog into her veterinary practice to be treated, and Jo recognizes him as Eli, a former housemate from her bohemian days more than 20 years ago. When he invites her to lunch at a fancy hotel in Boston, she goes with the intention of sleeping with him. Instead, Eli reveals a secret to Jo that returns her to the darkest moments of her past and threatens to destroy life as she knows it.
