A mother and son, estranged for years, must grapple with the shared secret that drove their lives apart in this enthralling story about family, forgiveness, and how a fleeting act of violence can change a life forever.
Acute empathy and insight ... I have never read a more informed and vividly rendered account of Peter’s daunting profession ... Documents an emotional odyssey that in the end feels satisfying and real, and Haslett’s account of Peter’s life is unparalleled in its portrayal of a worker on the front lines of our immigration wars buckling under the weight of his burden.
Masterful ... Adam Haslett’s storytelling skill...is on quietly magnificent display as Peter, slowly then more precipitously, begins to come undone ... The momentum of the novel builds as long-held misunderstandings and resentments come to the surface, illuminating the meaning of what it means to be a mother, and a son, and culminating with a great sense of a weight lifted, of lightness and air.
Haslett, who is one of the most psychologically astute fiction writers in America, complicates this novel beautifully ... There’s a strange tension in Haslett’s work between urgency and introspection. Try as you might, you cannot rush this novel. It will inevitably slacken your pace — not with boredom, but with wariness. His prose lies on the page with the intensity of a loosely coiled copperhead.
