(Fiction, 240 pp. 2022)
Shapiro’s novel explores the fluidity, confusion, and endurance of memory, and the cost of secrets and repressed guilt on family relationships. Anguish erupts within the first pages after three drunken teens make the fateful decision to drive. The ensuing crash propels a doctor to the scene from his adjacent home; his children and their friend are in the car. The crisis and its secrets suffuse the family’s internal dynamics and their relationships with others. Decades later, long after his children have moved away, the father’s late-night neighborhood encounters with a stargazing child establish an abiding bond and reveal intermingled fates across time and space.
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award for Fiction
Discussion Questions from the publisher, Alfred A. Knopf
Review by Marion Winick, The Washington Post, Oct. 13, 2022
Review from Kirkus Reviews, Oct. 18, 2022
Review by Amy Spungen, Jewish Book Council, Oct. 16, 2022
Review by Sarah McCraw Crow, BookPage, Oct. 18, 2022
Review by Harvey Freedenberg, Book Reporter, Oct. 21, 2022
Author Interview, “Ten Questions for Dani Shapiro,” Poets&Writers, Oct. 18, 2022
Author Interview with Seija Rankin, Entertainment Weekly, Oct. 27, 2022
Author Interview with Scott Simon, NPR, Oct. 22, 2022
Author Interview with Bethanee Patrick, The Los Angeles Times, Oct. 12, 2022
Author Interview with Emma Levy, The Seattle Times, Nov. 8, 2022