A young boy goes missing. The accused is a loner and outsider. When Ava Manseau learns that the suspect is her brother, Fred, she is compelled to piece together what actually happened, convinced that she alone will be able to explain him and his innocence. Fred has always been different: certainly impaired, never evaluated. The siblings grew up under seemingly idyllic circumstances, free of formal education and constraint in a family that rejected labels and diagnoses.
Now brother and sister have grown apart, their parents are gone – the boy is dead and Fred is in jail. Ava is forced to wonder: who is truly responsible for this turn of events? And is it her job to save him?
Hager Cohen brings her trademark wisdom and grace, depth of feeling and insight to an enthralling and morally ambiguous story. Perhaps, she suggests, in our ongoing struggle to comprehend one another, our imaginations can be more useful than facts.
O autorze
Leah Hager Cohen is the author of four novels, most recently The Grief of Others (9781846686276), which was longlisted for the Orange Prize, selected as a New York Times Notable Book, and named one of the books of the year by the San Francisco Chronicle and Kirkus Reviews. She is a frequent contributor to the New York Times Book Review.