Before I Sleep begins with a telephone call: Absent for three decades, Thurmond's birth father phones from his death bed, offering his son a chance for reconciliation. During those decades of absence, the son passes through childhood in the rural South to fulfill his dream of studying abroad at Oxford University. Along the way, his travels take him from Dallas to Madrid to Soviet Moscow. The people he meets are larger-than-life, including Allen Ginsberg, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Queen Elizabeth II. Recounting life-shaping events and the insights they yield, Before I Sleep brings Thurmond's physical, intellectual, and spiritual journey vividly to life. Readers will find this an engaging and deeply inspiring memoir.