Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Midwives, presents his most ambitious and multi-layered novel to date. This book examines wildly divisive issues in today’s America with his trademark emotional heft and spellbinding storytelling skill.

On a balmy July night in New Hampshire, a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough, and the shot that hit him was fired—accidentally?—by his adolescent daughter, Charlotte.

With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page-turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane. For ten summers, the Seton family—all three generations—met at their country home in New England to spend a week together. They played tennis, badminton, and golf, savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season.

In the eleventh summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, leading to a nightmarish accident. This incident put to the test the values that unite the family—and the convictions that just may pull it apart.