A mother and son, estranged for many years, reckon at last with the secret that has kept them apart in this highly anticipated novel by one of the most talented American writers of his generationPeter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated, spending his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional detached hook-ups. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peters numbness, the catastrophic event that he has avoided facing for twenty years returns to haunt him. Ann, his mother, who runs a womens retreat she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by her estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built.

She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peters case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart

Format: Paperback
Published: UK, 2026
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Pages: 336
Language: English
ISBN 10: 140596846X
ISBN 13: 9781405968461