Penitence

With masterful storytelling and unexpected twists, Kristin Koval's debut novel Penitence is a multigenerational story of grief and hope that asks powerful questions: When and why should we forgive? And are some things unforgivable?

Late one night in Lodgepole, Colorado, 13-year-old Nora Sheehan fatally shoots her older brother Nico in their family's home. Her parents, Angie and David, recruit small-town lawyer Martine Dumont in their fight against an overreaching prosecutor determined to try Nora as an adult, but soon-to-be-retired Martine faces a crucial challenge in building the defense: Nora refuses to speak.

Several years before, Nico was diagnosed with juvenile Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative illness with a grim prognosis, and the family must now grieve Nico's death earlier than expected. Angie, unsure how to continue loving her daughter, refuses to visit Nora in jail, and her marriage to David is on the brink of falling apart. David, desperate for help, asks Martine's son Julian--a successful New York criminal defense attorney and Angie's ex-boyfriend--to step in on the case. When Julian arrives in Lodgepole, he and Angie are forced to consider their former life together in New York and their joint culpability in a tragic accident decades ago.

For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a compelling and intimate portrait of a family pulled apart in the wake of tragedy that will leave readers and book clubs thinking long into the night.