First published 2010
Patsy MacLemoore wakes up in a jail cell with no memory of the night before. The history professor in her late twenties has earned a fresh Ph.D. from Berkeley, but her wild streak and drinking have landed her in trouble again. This time feels different. Her lawyer delivers devastating news: two Jehovah's Witnesses, a mother and daughter, died in her driveway. Patsy was driving with a revoked license during another blackout. She faces prison time and a lifetime of guilt over an act she cannot remember committing. Behind bars, Patsy gets sober and discovers community through Alcoholics Anonymous. She even finds love and marries a fellow member. For decades, she builds her new life around atonement for that terrible night. Then shocking information surfaces that changes everything Patsy believed about what happened. The revelation forces her to reconsider her guilt, her choices, and the assumptions that shaped her recovery.
Genres: fiction, drama, addiction, mystery, crime, contemporary
Vibes: dark, emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, second-chance, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Berkeley
Period: late-twenties
291 pages · Paperback · Picador
Content warnings: alcohol-abuse, depression, mental-illness, substance-abuse