Blame: A Novel (Library Edition)

Patsy MacLemoore, a history professor in her late twenties, has a brand-new Ph.D. from Berkeley and a wild streak. She wakes up in jail after an epic alcoholic blackout. Okay, what d I do? she asks her lawyer and jailers. In fact, two Jehovah s Witnesses, a mother and daughter, are dead, run over in Patsy s driveway, and Patsy will spend the rest of her life trying to atone. She goes to prison, gets sober, and upon her release finds a new community (and a husband) in AA. She resists temptations, strives for goodness, and becomes a selfless teacher, friend, and wife. Then, decades later, another unimaginable piece of information turns up. For the reader, it is an electrifying moment a joyous, fall-off-the-couch-with-surprise moment. For Patsy, it is more complicated. Blame must be reapportioned, her life reassessed.