Conville & Walsh

As reported in The Sunday Times and its affiliates, some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are vying for the chance to play the lead in the film adaptation of S J Watson’s thriller Before I Go to Sleep.

An international bestseller, it reached 7th spot in the New York Times hardback list, making it the fastest selling British debut since J K Rowling. The film rights were sold to Ridley Scott’s Scott Free production company earlier this year, with Rowan Joffe, screenwriter for 28 Weeks Later and The American, set to adapt the book.

There is reportedly interest from Kate Winslet, Cate Blanchett, Helen Hunt and Meg Ryan in the main role of Christine, a forty-seven-year-old writer who, following a catastrophic accident in her mid-twenties, is incapable of forming and maintaining new memories for more than a day. Trapped in an existence in which she wakes every day believing herself to be single and with a whole lifetime of choice ahead of her she discovers instead that she lives with her husband, Ben, with most decisions already made.

The novel charts her attempts to make sense of her world. When Chrissie learns that she has been meeting with a doctor who is helping her to recover her memory - and that following his suggestion she has been keeping a journal in order to record her fragmentary recollections and piece together her past - she is hopeful that she may be cured. But the story that emerges is to set in motion a terrifying voyage of discovery that will ultimately have startling consequences for her and all who love her, leading her to question whether the truth is sometimes better left forgotten.

The book has sold nearly 150,000 copies in the US, and is also a bestseller in the UK, Canada, France, Bulgaria and the Netherlands. S J was also named by Amazon.com as their Rising Star for 2011 - and it’s easy to see why.

Update 16/08/11: Four months after its release, Before I Go To Sleep will be back in the Sunday Times bestseller list at number 6 this Sunday.