Blameless

Lisa Reardon follows what Alice Munro called a "brave, heart-wrenching debut" with another extraordinary tale of pent-up violence, trespass, and redemption."Blameless" -- that's all Mary Culpepper longs to be. Free of the tug of human need. Mary's a big woman, a strong woman: drives the local school bus, hurls a mean softball, likes a cold beer and knows how to make her beloved '75 Mercury run. But she hides a wounded soul behind her capable, even prickly exterior. It is only when she discovers one of her young charges -- a thin, quiet girl, so ordinary, so forgettable! -- lying dead in a closet that Mary must wrestle with the fact that she has retreated from life. In an effort to shake off her horror and grief, she plunges into a heated affair with the father of another young girl who has become, despite their age gap, a good summertime friend. As the noose of this relationship tightens around her, she becomes the small town's pariah for testifying against the mother of the dead child. Will she choose to look away and remain blameless? or to open her heart and let suffering in?

A novel in the tradition of Sue Miller's A Good Mother, "Blameless" is a love story of savage tenderness, and a haunting exploration of moral accountability.