Forgiveness
"To err is human, to forgive divine," wrote poet Alexander Pope, suggesting that to forgive is sacred but also difficult—even impossible—for us mortals. This study guide collection gathers together texts with themes on the merits and challenges of forgiveness.
A Bottle in the Gaza Sea (2005) is a young adult novel by French author and translator Valérie Zenatti. It was first published in French as Une bouteille dans la mer de Gaza. The novel begins when 17-year-old Israeli Tal Levine learns about a bombing at a neighborhood café. She is moved to send a letter in a bottle, which reaches 20-year-old Palestinian Naïm Al-Farjouk. Tal included her email address, and they begin corresponding. Initially... Read A Bottle in the Gaza Sea Summary
All the Broken Pieces is a novel in verse by Ann E. Burg, first published in 2009 and geared toward middle grade readers. The novel won the Jefferson Cup Award for children’s historical fiction and was named an IRA Notable Book for a Global Society, as well as a Booklist Editors’ Choice and YALSA Best Book for Young Adults. Burg was also nominated for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work. With a sparse... Read All the Broken Pieces Summary
"All the Years of Her Life" is a short story by Canadian author Morley Callaghan, first published in his collection Now That April’s Here and Other Stories in 1936. Set in a drugstore in an unknown city, it centers around a young man named Alfred Higgins, who is caught by his boss stealing items from his workplace. Instead of calling the police, the owner, Mr. Carr, calls Alfred’s mother to discuss her son’s actions. Exploring... Read All the Years of Her Life Summary
First published in Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine, the classic science fiction/dystopian short story “All You Zombies—” (1959) by Robert A. Heinlein explores an unusual paradox involving transsexual time travel: What if you undergo sexual reassignment surgery, go back in time, have an affair with your younger self, and become your own parent? The story became an award-winning 2014 science fiction film, Predestination. Heinlein is known for his other science fiction works, including Stranger in... Read All You Zombies Summary
Anything Is Possible is a 2017 novel by Elizabeth Strout in which each chapter features a character who is separate from but interconnects with the book’s other characters. Each chapter thus serves as both an autonomous short story and a piece of a larger, cohesive narrative and echoes or parallels other chapters.Strout, whose 2008 novel Olive Kitteridge won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, received the prestigious Story Prize for Anything Is Possible. The novel follows... Read Anything Is Possible Summary
Ask Again, Yes, a New York Times best seller, is a multigeneration family epic that covers over 40 years in the lives of two Irish American families. A work of domestic realism comparable to works by Anne Tyler and Ann Padgett, the novel was placed on best novel of the year lists by both People magazine and National Public Radio, and it was also optioned to be developed as a limited television series.In 2011, author... Read Ask Again, Yes Summary
“A Small, Good Thing” is one of Raymond Carver’s most decorated short stories. It was first printed in heavily edited form as “The Bath” in a 1981 edition of Columbia. When Carver reworked the story for his 1983 collection Cathedral, he titled this more complete version “A Small, Good Thing.” In this form, the story won the coveted O. Henry award and appeared in the year’s Pushcart Prize Annual. A work of literary realism, “A... Read A Small Good Thing Summary
Pat Conroy’s 1995 novel Beach Music is a work of historical fiction. Set primarily in South Carolina, the novel follows a community fractured by memories of the Holocaust and the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Beach Music explores the nature of generational trauma and the way our pasts shape our futures. The power of forgiveness and the differences between duty and loyalty are also prominent themes. The setting and culture of the American... Read Beach Music Summary
Bearstone, published in 1989 by author Will Hobbs, is a coming-of-age adventure story for middle-grade readers. It describes half Ute, half Navajo teenager Cloyd Attcity’s quest to escape his dull, constrained life and find purpose and meaning in the wilderness. With the help of his mentor, rancher Walter Landis, Cloyd’s search leads to a spiritual adventure in the high country and a dramatic struggle to protect a grizzly bear from a professional big-game hunter. Bearstone... Read Bearstone Summary
Because of Mr. Terupt (2010) is a middle-grade novel that takes place in Mr. Terupt’s fifth-grade class at Snow Hill School in Connecticut. The story is told from the perspectives of seven individual students in Mr. Terupt’s class. Mr. Terupt himself is a new teacher who attempts to teach lessons about personal responsibility, but his good intentions backfire when he falls victim to a tragic schoolyard accident that leaves him in a coma. The novel... Read Because of Mr. Terupt Summary
Between Riverside and Crazy, a 2014 play in two acts by Stephen Adly Guirgis, won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. This work is widely considered a New York play written by a New York playwright, as it captures the particular spirit of this unique city in its story about an ex-cop facing eviction from his rent-controlled apartment and his efforts to understand and adapt to his changing world. Stephen Adly Guirgis, a native of New York City, grew up on... Read Between Riverside And Crazy Summary
Breath, Eyes, Memory is a novel by Haitian American author Edwidge Danticat, first published in 1994. The book is semi-autobiographical: like the protagonist, 12-year-old Sophie Caco, Danticat herself was born in Haiti but moved to the United States at a young age. She has since written several novels and short stories about Haiti, immigration, and the complex ways that one’s identity is formed by where they are from and where they now live. The novel... Read Breath, Eyes, Memory Summary
Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth, written by Susanna Rowson (1762-1824) and published in 1791, is a cautionary Sentimentalist novel about Charlotte Temple, an upper-middle-class 15-year-old girl living in England. She leaves her family and home to follow a soldier, who promises to marry her, to the United States. However, Charlotte is betrayed by her companions, which leads to her untimely death. Although the novel did not perform well when originally published in England, the... Read Charlotte Temple: A Tale of Truth Summary
Clear Light of Day (1980) is Anita Desai’s sixth and—according to the author—most autobiographical novel. This novel was the first of three of Desai’s books to be nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize. Like other books in her corpus, such as Cry, the Peacock (1963) and Where Shall We Go This Summer? (1975), it deals with gender struggles in a modernizing India. Set against the backdrop of Indian Independence and Partition, it explores the lives... Read Clear Light of Day Summary
Crime and Punishment is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky, first published in 1866. The story charts the alienation of a student named Raskolnikov who decides to commit the perfect crime to philosophically proving his superiority over others. The novel traces the depths of his mental disintegration as he comes to grips with the psychological consequences of being a murderer, exploring themes like Alienation and Shame, Criminality, and The Necessity of Suffering.Dostoevsky, a stalwart... Read Crime and Punishment Summary
Cry, the Beloved Country is a 1948 work of historical fiction by Alan Paton. Set in South Africa, it follows a Christian reverend named Stephen Kumalo, who lives in a Zulu village called Ndotsheni. Geographically isolated from his brother John, his sister Gertrude, and his son Absalom, Stephen becomes worried when he stops hearing from them. He travels to Johannesburg to check up on them. Cry, the Beloved Country is known for illuminating a historically... Read Cry, the Beloved Country Summary
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Dear John is a novel published in 2006 by Nicholas Sparks, a best-selling American romance writer. In 2010, the book was adapted into a feature film starring Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried. Dear John tells the story of star-crossed lovers: John Tyree, a soldier on leave, falls for Savannah Lynn Curtis, a visiting college student. After 9/11, John must choose between duty to his country and the people who love him, both of whom he... Read Dear John Summary
Disgrace (1999) is a novel by South African author J. M. Coetzee. It follows a white South African professor of English as he navigates the changing world of post-apartheid South Africa. Disgrace won the Booker Prize after its publication in 1999 and, four years later, Coetzee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 2008, the novel was adapted into a movie starring John Malkovich and Jessica Haines. This guide uses the 1999 Secker &... Read Disgrace Summary
Doctor Sleep is a 2013 horror novel by Stephen King. It is a sequel to the events that occurred in King’s popular novel The Shining and features the return of Danny Torrance. Decades after the horrors at the Overlook Hotel, Dan Torrance must now reckon with the renewed threat of the spirits. When the novel begins, the dead woman from the Overlook’s Room 217 has returned and threatens Danny in his bathroom. King uses this... Read Doctor Sleep Summary
Ted Chiang’s Exhalation is a collection of nine science fiction short stories. Published in 2019, the stories feature time travel, robots, artificial intelligences, and human beings grappling with an everchanging world. Seven of the nine stories appeared in previous publications, going on to win multiple Hugo, Nebula, and Locus awards. Through the science fiction/dystopian genre, Exhalation explores forgiveness, parenting, technology ethics, free will, and climate change. This is Ted Chiang’s second collection, following Stories of... Read Exhalation Summary
Flipped is a contemporary young adult novel by Wendelin Van Draanen. The main characters, Juli Baker and Bryce Loski, are neighbors in Mayfield, a fictional American town. Now in eighth grade, the two protagonists reveal the story of their relationship in a dual narrative of alternating first-person chapters that recount how Juli “flips” for Bryce at a young age but later decides she is not interested…right around the time Bryce finally “flips” for Juli. The... Read Flipped Summary
For One More Day, by Mitch Albom, tells the story of Charles “Chick” Benetto, a retired baseball player fallen on hard times. The story is framed by a prologue and epilogue where a narrator explains that they are telling the story from Chick’s perspective, “because I’m not sure you would believe this story if you didn’t hear it in his voice” (7). The book is comprised of short chapters told in the first person, and... Read For One More Day Summary
IntroductionFreedom is a 2010 novel by American author Jonathan Franzen. The story focuses on the Berglunds, a dysfunctional family living in Minnesota. The novel examines themes of family, freedom, depression, addiction, marriage, and more. Freedom was a selection for Oprah’s book club and won great critical acclaim.Content warning: This guide contains references to alcohol addiction and rape, which are discussed in the source text. Plot Summary The book unfolds across four parts. Part 1, “Good... Read Freedom Summary
“God Sees the Truth, but Waits” is a short story by Leo Tolstoy originally published in 1872. The story, a parable about forgiveness that explores religious and spiritual themes, tells of a man sent to prison in Siberia for a murder he did not commit. The story has been adapted for various media, including films and radio programs. This guide refers to the 1990 Norton Critical Edition.Set in Tolstoy’s contemporary Russia, the story is narrated... Read God Sees the Truth, but Waits Summary
Goodbye, Vitamin is Asian American author Rachel Khong’s debut novel. Khong, whose grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease, explores how Alzheimer’s disease affects a family in this work of literary fiction. Written as a series of diary entries, Khong’s protagonist, Ruth Young, meditates on memory, forgiveness, and the challenges inherent in familial relationships as she navigates an adulthood that is not turning out as planned.Published in 2017, Goodbye, Vitamin received positive reviews and was named one of... Read Goodbye, Vitamin Summary
Great Expectations is the 13th novel written by Charles Dickens. It was originally published as a serial in Dickens’s periodical, All the Year Round, Great Expectations, and Chapman and Hall published the novelized version in October of 1861. The novel is widely considered to be a classic example of the bildungsroman, or coming-of-age genre, and it has been adapted into numerous plays, films, and television series. Other works by Dickens include Nicholas Nickleby, The Old... Read Great Expectations Summary
Half Brother (2010) is a young adult novel by Kenneth Oppel. In the novel, Oppel combines and fictionalizes several experiments in which chimpanzees learned sign language to communicate. The story follows the Tomlin family as they adopt a baby chimpanzee to see if it can learn and use language. Through this experiment and its effect on the characters, the text explores the themes of family, belonging, animal rights, communication, individuality, and growing up. The novel... Read Half Brother Summary
How I Learned to Drive, a play written by Paula Vogel, premiered Off-Broadway in 1997 and won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1998. It addresses pedophilia, victim blaming, and misogyny, as well as the complexities of love and family. Through non-chronological flashbacks, Li’l Bit, now in her forties, uses learning to drive as a metaphor for her learning about sex, and about life, from her aunt’s husband, Peck, with whom she has a sexual relationship. Each scene is designated... Read How I Learned to Drive Summary
Published by Minotaur Books in 2013, How the Light Gets In is the ninth book in Louise Penny’s bestselling Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series. The series is famous for its heroic protagonist, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, the head of the homicide division at the Sûreté du Québec. The novel comprises of three narratives: the murder of Constance Ouellet, the internal conflict at the Sûreté, and the mysterious death of a clerk at the Ministry of... Read How the Light Gets In Summary
Originally published in 2002, Markus Zusak’s I Am the Messenger is a young adult realistic fiction novel. Ed Kennedy, the protagonist and narrator, is a 19-year-old cab driver whose average life takes an unexpected turn when he stops a bank robber. After this moment of heroism, he begins receiving mysterious playing cards with cryptic messages that lead him to people in need of his assistance. The novel is set in suburban Sydney and draws on... Read I Am The Messenger Summary
Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True centers on the illness of Thomas Birdsey, a middle-aged man who has had schizophrenia for the previous 20 years. Narrated by Thomas’s twin brother, Dominick, the novel opens with Thomas having left the group home where he lives and him cutting off his hand with a knife he took from his stepfather’s weapon collection. Thomas performs this action after reading a Bible verse that commands the reader... Read I Know This Much Is True Summary
I’ll Give You the Sun (2015) is an award-winning novel penned by Jandy Nelson about relationships, art, and destiny. It follows the story of twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine who once shared a close relationship but find themselves barely speaking to each other two years after their mother’s death.Jandy Nelson is an American author who writes young adult fiction. I’ll Give You the Sun is her second novel, which won numerous awards and honors, including... Read I'll Give You the Sun Summary
Published in 1971, In the Shadow of Man is the third and most famous book by British primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall. The work details Goodall’s groundbreaking study of chimpanzees in Tanzania’s Gombe Stream National Park and her unlikely journey from being a secretary in the UK to heading a major chimpanzee study in East Africa and becoming one of the world’s foremost primatology experts. Functioning as both a memoir and a scientific exploration of chimp... Read In the Shadow of Man Summary
Jacob Have I Loved (1980) is the seventh book published by acclaimed American author Katherine Paterson. Set in the 1940s on a tiny crab-fishing island in the Chesapeake Bay, the coming-of-age novel tells the story of teenager Sara Louise Bradshaw as she navigates her contentious relationship with her twin sister, Caroline, and seeks identity and purpose in her village. The novel explores the theme of sibling rivalry and religious struggles. Jacob Have I Loved won... Read Jacob Have I Loved Summary
Jesus’ Son (1992) is a collection of short fiction by American writer Denis Johnson, published by Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux. It explores themes of The Slipperiness of Time, Substance Use Disorder, and Violence as Inevitability. In the form of a short story cycle, each of the 11 stories of Jesus’ Son is narrated by the same protagonist, who has a substance use disorder and is referred to in the narrative as “Fuckhead”. The book takes... Read Jesus' Son Summary
Left Behind (1995) is the first book in the series of the same name. It was co-authored by Tim LaHaye, a minister and prophecy scholar, and Jerry B. Jenkins, an author of mystery novels, biographies, and Christian fiction. The series is a work of speculative Christian fiction based on biblical prophecies related to the so-called “end times.” Its plot opens with “the Rapture,” a cataclysmic event discussed in biblical prophecy in which Jesus returns to... Read Left Behind Summary
Lisa Genova’s second novel, Left Neglected (2011), is the fictional story of Sarah Nickerson, a high-powered executive whose life changes forever when she is in a serious car accident. Genova is the New York Times bestselling author of several novels, each dealing with a different neurological condition. She graduated from Bates College with a degree in biopsychology and from Harvard University with a doctorate in neuroscience, a background that influences her writing. Other works by... Read Left Neglected Summary
Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculée Ilibagiza is an autobiography published in 2006. Immaculée is a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, which lasted from April to July that year. During this 100-day period, it is estimated that nearly a million Tutsis were killed by Hutus, the tribe that comprised the majority of Rwanda’s population at that time. Immaculée is a Tutsi and a 22-year-old college student when the genocide... Read Left To Tell Summary
Lilac Girls is a historical fiction novel by Martha Hall Kelly. Published in 2016, Kelly’s debut novel is inspired by the true story of New York City activist and socialite Caroline Ferriday. Kelly was also inspired by the true story of the Ravensbrück Rabbits, a group of Polish women who were victims of torturous medical experiments during the Second World War. The novel explores the themes of hope, sacrifice, and forgiveness in the face of... Read Lilac Girls Summary
The novel Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders, published by Random House in 2017, offers a portrait of an American legend in mourning, surrounded by a poignant but funny cast of 166 characters. It is Saunders’s debut novel, though he has been a notable author of short story collections for decades. The novel won the prestigious Man Booker Prize and was a New York Times best seller.Set in 1862, Lincoln in the Bardo is... Read Lincoln in the Bardo Summary
Looking for Alaska is narrated by a sixteen-year-old boy, Miles Halter, who leaves behind his mundane life in Florida to attend a boarding school called Culver Creek. He is inspired by biographies detailing the adventures of notable figures during their days at boarding school. Most of all, he is motivated by the notion of a “Great Perhaps”. Miles has a fascination with famous last words, and particularly with the last words of the poet Francois... Read Looking for Alaska Summary
Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger’s by John Elder Robison is a personal memoir published in 2007. Like Temple Grandin’s Thinking in Pictures: My Life with Autism and Daniel Tammet’s Born on a Blue Day, Robison’s memoir is a personal account of living with autism spectrum disorder. A New York Times best-seller, the book has subsequently been translated into French, Italian, Portuguese, and German.Look Me in the Eye details Robison’s life growing... Read Look Me In The Eye Summary
Lost in the Sun by middle grade author Lisa Graff follows the story of Trent Zimmerman, who feels responsible for the accidental death of a hockey teammate. Trent grapples with issues of self-loathing, guilt, and rage as he begins his journey of healing through friendship. This 2015 middle grade novel is Graff’s eighth full-length children’s book and was chosen for Amazon’s 2015 Best Book list. This guide refers to the 2015 Puffin paperback edition of... Read Lost in the Sun Summary
American author Louise Erdrich’s debut novel, Love Medicine, was first published in 1984 to critical acclaim. A bestseller and winner of the 1984 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, the novel follows three generations of members from five Ojibwe families in Minnesota and North Dakota. Lyrical, metaphorical, and a complex exploration of oppression, joy, and family, the novel is both a record of history and an analysis of love. Blending the genres of historical... Read Love Medicine Summary
Measure for Measure is a play written by William Shakespeare. It was first performed in 1604 and is considered one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays” because of its ambiguous tone that shifts between tragedy and comedy. Shakespeare was a prolific poet and playwright during the Elizabethan and Jacobean era. While his earlier works were primarily comedies and histories, Measure for Measure was written during the period in which Shakespeare began to write many of his most... Read Measure For Measure Summary
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus (1992) is a self-help and personal development book by American author John Gray. The book is designed to help couples improve their relationships by accepting how different men and women are. Although the book was initially met with critical acclaim, it has lost popularity due to critiques about sexist content and the book’s worldview. Although this is Gray’s best-known work, Gray has published many similar books concerned... Read Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus Summary
Mere Christianity by Clive Staples Lewis (more commonly known as C. S. Lewis) was first published in 1952 as an expansion of some radio talks Lewis gave during World War II. Though Lewis is best known for his children’s fantasy series The Chronicles of Narnia (particularly The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe), Mere Christianity is likely Lewis’s most famous work of Christian apologetics—a genre dedicated to addressing various critiques of Christian theology. Lewis was... Read Mere Christianity Summary
Miracle’s Boys (2000) is a young adult novel by Jaqueline Woodson. The novel tells the story of three brothers, ages 21, 15, and 12, coping with the sudden death of their mother a year before. The middle brother, Charlie, recently returned home from a juvenile detention facility, where he was serving a two-year sentence for attempting to rob a candy store at gun point. Set in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in New York City, Miracle’s... Read Miracle's Boys Summary
First published as a play in 2001, the novella Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran is part of Franco-Belgian author Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt’s Cycle of the Invisible series consisting of unrelated stories on the themes of human connection, the transition from childhood to adulthood, and spirituality. Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran has been performed on the stage and was adapted for the screen in 2003. This study guide refers to Marjolijn... Read Monsieur Ibrahim and the Flowers of the Koran Summary
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Night at the Fiestas is a 2015 story collection by New Mexican author Kirstin Valdez Quade. The collection won the National Book Critics Circle John Leonard Award, and after its publication, Valdez Quade was recognized as a “Top 5 Writer Under 35” by the National Book Foundation. In 2021, Valdez Quade revised one of the stories, “The Five Wounds” into an award-winning novel of the same title, establishing herself as an important new voice in... Read Night at the Fiestas Summary
Nine Perfect Strangers is a 2018 novel by Liane Moriarty. Set in Sydney, Australia, the novel follows a group of strangers who gather at a wellness retreat to receive treatment from a mysterious health guru. The novel was adapted for a 2021 television series starring Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, and Michael Shannon.This guide uses an eBook copy of the text published by Flatiron Books. It also discusses potentially triggering situations, including death by suicide, trauma... Read Nine Perfect Strangers Summary
Originally published in 1999, No Future Without Forgiveness is the memoir of Desmond Mpilo Tutu. Tutu won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1984 for his efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. He served as Archbishop of the Anglican Church in Cape Town and later chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which President Mandela established to help address the atrocities of apartheid.Although Tutu’s memoir focuses on his work with the TRC between 1995... Read No Future Without Forgiveness Summary
No Promises in the Wind is a young-adult historical novel that takes place at the height of the Great Depression. The first-person narrative tells the coming-of-age story of a 15-year-old boy who leaves home with his younger brother because their family doesn’t have enough to eat. Josh and Joey Grondowski use their musical talents to survive on their own as they travel through a country of angry and impoverished people. First published in 1970, the... Read No Promises In The Wind Summary
On Beauty by the celebrated British author Zadie Smith was published in 2005. On Beauty was shortlisted for the prestigious Man Booker Prize and won the Orange Prize for Fiction. Smith is known for writing novels and essays that analyze the intersections of identity in the contemporary world with nuance, clarity, and empathy. She is also known to be influenced by the classic English author E.M. Forster. On Beauty is loosely based on Forster’s masterpiece... Read On Beauty Summary
Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s middle-grade (young adult) contemporary novel One for the Murphys was published in 2012. It earned a Kirkus starred review and was a Scholastic Book Clubs Editor’s Choice.This guide references the 2012 edition from Nancy Paulsen Books, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group. The novel explores the foster care system and the way that even its most positive experiences have a nuanced and complex effect on children in foster care. The story... Read One for the Murphys Summary
On the Road, published in 1957, is a novel by prominent Beat Generation writer Jack Kerouac that recalls his cross-country travels across the US in the late 1940s. It explores concepts of society, freedom, and—most of all—friendship.Sal Paradise (Kerouac’s pseudonym) is the story’s protagonist and narrator, while other key characters stand in for fellow Beat luminaries in his circle, including poet Allen Ginsberg (best known for the revolutionary 1956 poem Howl) and writer William S... Read On the Road Summary
Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust is a historical middle-grade novel in verse first published in 1997. Through 110 first-person free verse poems, the narrative tells the story of two years in the life of Billie Jo Kelby, young daughter of a struggling farming family in the Oklahoma Panhandle in the mid-1930s. After a tragic accident results in the death of Billie Jo’s mother and baby brother, she and her father must find a way... Read Out of the Dust Summary
Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption is a 2009 memoir written by Ronald Cotton and Jennifer Thompson-Cannino. The coauthors share a unique relationship. When she was 22, Jennifer mistakenly identified Ronald as the man who raped her in her apartment. He was wrongfully convicted and spent 11 years in prison before being exonerated by DNA testing. Together, they tell their story, which explores themes of Victimization, Guilt, and Shame; The Unreliability of Eyewitness... Read Picking Cotton Summary
Presumed Innocent (1987) is Scott Turow’s first novel, originally published by Farrar Straus & Giroux. The hit novel stayed on the New York Times bestseller list for 44 weeks and is often credited as an early example of the modern legal thriller, helping to shape the genre’s conventions. Turow went on to publish 12 additional novels and three nonfiction works. He also continued to practice law, specializing in criminal defense, contrasting with Presumed Innocent’s protagonist... Read Presumed Innocent Summary
Secrets of a Charmed Life is a historical fiction novel written by Susan Meissner and published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Random House, in 2015. The book follows two sisters in wartime England, Emmeline and Julia Downtree, who are separated from each other during the Blitz. The book also follows an interview between American Oxford student Kendra Van Zant and Blitz survivor and artist Isabel MacFarland. The novel explores the themes of... Read Secrets of a Charmed Life Summary
Shadow of Night (2012) is a historical fantasy romance novel by Deborah Harkness, and the second book in the All Souls Trilogy, preceded by A Discovery of Witches (2011) and followed by The Book of Life (2014). A prequel novel, Time’s Convert (2019), follows the origin story of Matthew’s son Marcus, who is a minor character in Shadow of Night.Harkness holds a PhD from the University of California, Davis and teaches early modern European history... Read Shadow of Night Summary
Something Borrowed is a work of romantic fiction from author Emily Giffin, published in 2004. It was a critical and commercial success, earning rave reviews and landing a spot on the New York Times bestseller list. The novel was Giffin’s first, and she has published several more books in the same genre. Some of her other books include Love the One You’re With (2008), Heart of the Matter (2010), Where We Belong (2012), and Something... Read Something Borrowed Summary
Sycamore Row (2013) by John Grisham is the sequel to his debut novel and best-selling legal thriller, A Time to Kill (1989). Grisham, a practicing lawyer prior to his career as a novelist, popularized the legal thriller with his prolific work in the genre, frequently highlighting social justice and legal ethics issues. Though marketed as a legal thriller, Grisham himself makes a clear distinction between his legal thrillers and his Ford County novels—aka the Jake... Read Sycamore Row Summary
Tell the Wolves I’m Home is the 2012 debut novel of author Carol Rifka Brunt. In it, 14-year-old narrator June Elbus wrestles with her grief over the death of her uncle Finn Weiss, who died of AIDS. Set in 1987 New York at the height of the AIDS crisis, the novel confronts the stigmas surrounding the disease through June’s parents and sister, who blame Finn’s long-term partner, Toby Aldshaw, for transmitting AIDS to Finn. As... Read Tell the Wolves I'm Home Summary
