PENITENCE

Death and complications define Angie Sheehan’s life. At 17, she witnesses her younger sister, Diana, die in a ski accident that also injures her own boyfriend, Julian. She eventually leaves to become an artist in New York City, but just as her career begins to blossom, her father develops cancer and Angie moves back to Colorado to help run the family restaurant business and marries David, a law enforcement ranger for the National Park Service. A decade and a half later, she begins caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, only to learn that her 14-year-old son, Nico, has juvenile Huntington’s disease. Then one night, her quiet daughter, Nora, kills Nico with her father’s gun. This tragedy sets off a series of life-altering events that include an uneasy reconnection with Julian. A successful criminal attorney now living in New York, Julian reluctantly returns to Colorado to help his lawyer mother defend Nora. Probing the memories of the main characters with sensitivity and insight, Koval takes readers on a journey into the sometimes-painful secrets they have kept from each other. Julian never tells Angie the degree of his involvement in her sister’s death or how it drove him to alcoholism, just as Angie never tells Julian—or David—that she conceived Nico just as she left Julian for David. While exploring the complexities of personal and family relationships, this engrossing, emotionally charged novel also examines the way forgiveness comes from acceptance that “each one of us is more than the worst we’ve ever done.”

Feb 18, 2025 - 07:06

Death and complications define Angie Sheehan’s life. At 17, she witnesses her younger sister, Diana, die in a ski accident that also injures her own boyfriend, Julian. She eventually leaves to become an artist in New York City, but just as her career begins to blossom, her father develops cancer and Angie moves back to Colorado to help run the family restaurant business and marries David, a law enforcement ranger for the National Park Service. A decade and a half later, she begins caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, only to learn that her 14-year-old son, Nico, has juvenile Huntington’s disease. Then one night, her quiet daughter, Nora, kills Nico with her father’s gun. This tragedy sets off a series of life-altering events that include an uneasy reconnection with Julian. A successful criminal attorney now living in New York, Julian reluctantly returns to Colorado to help his lawyer mother defend Nora. Probing the memories of the main characters with sensitivity and insight, Koval takes readers on a journey into the sometimes-painful secrets they have kept from each other. Julian never tells Angie the degree of his involvement in her sister’s death or how it drove him to alcoholism, just as Angie never tells Julian—or David—that she conceived Nico just as she left Julian for David. While exploring the complexities of personal and family relationships, this engrossing, emotionally charged novel also examines the way forgiveness comes from acceptance that “each one of us is more than the worst we’ve ever done.”