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, Kris Koval's Penitence poses so many rich and complicated questions about where and how guilt lives and grows and festers, what love might feel like and how it might still flourish when we're faced with the worst of who we might be or have been."—Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight