Believing Cedric

"Believing Cedric is a marvelously strange novel that explores a marvelously normal phenomenon: everyone in our lives has a story. Mark Lavorato writes with great humanity, compassion and curiosity." —Todd Babiak, author of Toby: A Man

Cedric Johnson is a middle-aged insurance broker with an unusual problem. He seems to be physically flashing back to pivotal moments from his past. It begins when his third-grade teacher notices a startling awareness in an otherwise unremarkable boy. Next, Cedric inhabits his fourteen-year-old body. He continues to travel through the life he's already lived, issuing warnings and searching for answers. But why should anyone believe him?

Cedric's journeys through time bring him face to face with forgotten memories, heartbreaking loss, the possibilities of love, and the agony of a life of regret. Cedric incenses and inspires the people around him, and changes the landscapes of their lives.

"Mark Lavorato has created one of the most intriguing and challenging books I've ever had the pleasure of reading with his second novel... A gritty, original tale exploring what it means to not just be alive but to truly live, Believing Cedric will stay with you long after the tale is over. I've never read anything like it." —Lethbridge Living Magazine

"The novel takes readers on a journey through not only the perspective of the main character, but reveals him through the eyes of those that interact and connect with him. It explores consciousness, regret, death and love, including what binds Canadians to this country." —The Haliburton County Echo

"The writing is inventive without being showy, and Lavorato has a gift for letting characters' emotions seep out, often catching the reader unprepared. Believing Cedric is an exceptional sophomore effort." —Quill & Quire

"Believing Cedric is a refreshingly ambitious and original novel, an intriguing narrative that draws a dozen stories together across half a century of history with confidence and verve." —John Ryle, Bard College, New York, reviewer for The New York Review of Books