Penitence: A Novel

by Kristin Koval

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

A story about grief, guilt and secrets, Penitence is a poignant and gripping domestic drama that will leave you breathless.

“Gripping and propulsive, Kristin Koval’s Penitence is an exploration of the struggles and impossible choices of two families linked by tragedy, guilt, blame and love.” —The Washington Post

For readers of Ann Patchett and Celeste Ng, Penitence is a poignant exploration of love and forgiveness. It’s a suspenseful, addictive page-turner filled with literary insight that compels readers to consider whether the worst thing we’ve ever done is all that defines us.

When a shocking murder occurs in the home of Angie and David Sheehan, their lives are shattered. Desperate to defend their family, they turn to small-town lawyer Martine Dumont for help, but Martine isn’t just legal counsel—she’s also the mother of Angie’s first love, Julian, a now-successful New York City criminal defense attorney. As Julian and Angie confront their shared past and long-buried guilt from a tragic accident years ago, they must navigate their own culpability and the unresolved feelings between them.

Spanning decades, from the ski slopes of rural Colorado to the streets of pre-9/11 New York City and back again, Kristin Koval’s debut novel Penitence is an examination of the complexities of familial loyalty, the journey of redemption, and the profound experience of true forgiveness.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250342997
Publisher:	Celadon Books
Publication date:	01/28/2025
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Kristin Koval is a former lawyer who always wanted to be a writer but initially wandered down other paths. Penitence is her debut novel and was a Barnes & Noble Discover Pick, a Book of the Month Pick, an Indie Next Pick, an Apple Books Staff Pick, an Apple Audiobooks Must Listen, a People Magazine Book of the Week, and a Goodreads Most Anticipated Pick and Hottest Debut Selection. She lives in Boulder, Colorado and Park City, Utah with her husband, two sons and two Great Danes.

Editorial Reviews

2024-11-23
A teenager’s murder of her beloved sibling opens old family wounds and brings dark truths to light.

Death and complications define Angie Sheehan’s life. At 17, she witnesses her younger sister, Diana, die in a ski accident that also injures her own boyfriend, Julian. She eventually leaves to become an artist in New York City, but just as her career begins to blossom, her father develops cancer and Angie moves back to Colorado to help run the family restaurant business and marries David, a law enforcement ranger for the National Park Service. A decade and a half later, she begins caring for her mother, who has Alzheimer’s disease, only to learn that her 14-year-old son, Nico, has juvenile Huntington’s disease. Then one night, her quiet daughter, Nora, kills Nico with her father’s gun. This tragedy sets off a series of life-altering events that include an uneasy reconnection with Julian. A successful criminal attorney now living in New York, Julian reluctantly returns to Colorado to help his lawyer mother defend Nora. Probing the memories of the main characters with sensitivity and insight, Koval takes readers on a journey into the sometimes-painful secrets they have kept from each other. Julian never tells Angie the degree of his involvement in her sister’s death or how it drove him to alcoholism, just as Angie never tells Julian—or David—that she conceived Nico just as she left Julian for David. While exploring the complexities of personal and family relationships, this engrossing, emotionally charged novel also examines the way forgiveness comes from acceptance that “each one of us is more than the worst we’ve ever done.”

An intelligent, deftly crafted suspense debut.

Kirkus Reviews

“Gripping and propulsive, Kristin Koval’s Penitence is an exploration of the struggles and impossible choices of two families linked by tragedy, guilt, blame and love.”
—The Washington Post

"When tragedy strikes in Angie and David's home, the lawyer they ask for help is the mother of Angie's first love. A propulsive, deftly woven story of loss and forgiveness."
—People

"Koval maintains the pacing of a thriller while going deep on themes of guilt, forgiveness, and the toll of keeping secrets. Readers won’t be able to look away."
—Publishers Weekly

"While exploring the complexities of personal and family relationships, this engrossing, emotionally charged novel also examines the way forgiveness comes from acceptance that 'each one of us is more than the worst we’ve ever done.' An intelligent, deftly crafted suspense debut."
—Kirkus

"Fans of Little Fires Everywhere will appreciate this deeply moving novel about what it takes to let go of guilt and find redemption. Koval’s background in law lends realism to her image of America’s broken criminal justice system, and her prose poignantly exposes what it takes to find forgiveness."
—Booklist

“The tension of a suspense novel and the gravitas of a family tragedy… [an] uncommonly impressive debut novel.”
—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

“This is a gorgeously written story about relationships and the power of forgiveness.”
—The Colorado Sun

“This story begins with a shocking act of violence but unfolds into a tender story of family, long-held secrets, and what ifs. Penitence is both a gripping page-turner and a loving exploration of what it really means to forgive.”
—Mary Beth Keane, bestselling author of Ask Again, Yes and The Half Moon

“Big-hearted, bold, and deftly plotted, Penitence tells a shocking tale of fratricide against the backdrop of two families linked by love, chance, and tragedy. I couldn’t put it down. Kristin Koval emerges as a remarkable new voice in fiction.”
—Adrienne Brodeur, bestselling author of Little Monsters and Wild Game

"Deeply humane, spiky, yearning, heartfelt, rendered in brisk and often stunning prose, Kristin Koval's Penitence poses so many rich and complicated questions about where and how guilt lives."
—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight

"Kristin Koval’s prose is crisp and readable and insightful... Penitence will grab you on its first page and hold you tight until the end.”
—Laura Spence-Ash, author of Beyond That, the Sea

“Penitence, riveting as a thriller, is a wise and profound novel. After a shocking tragedy unfolds in a small Colorado community, those intimately affected must grapple with their limitations and their buried histories. Kristin Koval relays their stories with great wisdom and compassion in this remarkable debut.”
—Claire Messud, bestselling author of The Emperor’s Children and This Strange Eventful History

From the Publisher