If We Had Known
Published on 14. June 2018
Book
Hardback
272 pages
978-1-4555-6177-3 (ISBN)
Description
After a shooting in her local mall in rural New Hampshire, English professor Maggie Daley is surprised to learn the gunman was her former student, and chagrined when she finds an old essay offering clues to his violent nature she might have missed.
Even as the tragedy begins to fade from the national consciousness, it takes up a larger and larger part of Maggie's attention and obsession--and it begins to disrupt her relationships with her anxiety-ridden daughter, her ex-husband, and her new lover. Meanwhile, both Maggie's employer and a determined blogger, separately, are digging into the shooter's troubled past. Feeling pressured from all sides, Maggie begins to fear that her culpability may extend past a simple sense of guilt and put the life she's built at risk.
IF WE HAD KNOWN explores the private implications of public tragedies, how we navigate fear in today's world, and whether it's possible to see anyone--spouses, parents, students--as they truly are.
Even as the tragedy begins to fade from the national consciousness, it takes up a larger and larger part of Maggie's attention and obsession--and it begins to disrupt her relationships with her anxiety-ridden daughter, her ex-husband, and her new lover. Meanwhile, both Maggie's employer and a determined blogger, separately, are digging into the shooter's troubled past. Feeling pressured from all sides, Maggie begins to fear that her culpability may extend past a simple sense of guilt and put the life she's built at risk.
IF WE HAD KNOWN explores the private implications of public tragedies, how we navigate fear in today's world, and whether it's possible to see anyone--spouses, parents, students--as they truly are.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United States
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
With dust jacket
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 160 mm
Thickness: 28 mm
Weight
499 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-4555-6177-3 (9781455561773)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Elise Juska's fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Ploughshares, Gettysburg Review, The Missouri Review, Good Housekeeping, The Hudson Review, and many other publications. She is the recipient of the Alice Hoffman Prize for Fiction from Ploughshares and her work has been cited in The Best American Short Stories. She lives in Philadelphia, where she is the director of the undergraduate creative writing program at the University of the Arts.