"Each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done." (p.108) Powerful words to perfectly describe this thought-provoking read. Angie and David are happily married in their hometown. Raising two kids, working, living. Then, their 13-year-old daughter, Nora, shoots and kills her 14-year-old brother, Nico. As if that's not complicated enough, the gun used was her father's service pistol. No warning, no fighting, no clues. While grieving, Angie and David must also come to terms with their 13-year-old in jail, charged with murder. They turn to a familiar pair for help - Angie's high school boyfriend and his mother, both attorneys. This story is gripping. It's as much about why Nora killed Nico as it is about what happens to families when kids kill. It's the cascade of things that comes with tragedy: one child is dead, one child is incarcerated, the guilt, the blame, and the tearing apart of the family that remains. Mostly, it's about if you choose to embrace forgiveness in unthinkable situations. How do you love someone who took a life? Are we more than the worst thing we've ever done? I felt a shift in my soul when I realized that answer. Penitence is Kristin Koval's first novel. I cannot wait for more!
Review by Laura L.
Penitence by Kristin Koval
Penitence is a sweeping debut novel that follows the lives of two estranged families in rural Colorado after an unimaginable tragedy forces them back together. When their thirteen-year-old daughter Nora kills her terminally ill brother, Angie and David Sheehan struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives. They turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn't just legal counsel-she's also the mother of Angie's ill-fated first love, Julian, a successful criminal defense attorney. Martine promptly draws him into the legal battle against an overreaching district attorney determined to try Nora as an adult. As the families grapple with the lasting strain of blame and the complexities of an often unfair criminal justice system, Julian and Angie must confront their own culpability in a long-ago accident and the guilt they still carry over how their prior life together in New York City ended. For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a timely story of hope in the face of blame and remorse. It's both an addictive page-turner and a literary reflection on the boundaries of forgiveness that compels readers to consider whether each of us is more than the worst thing we've ever done