Testimony

A sex scandal at a New England boarding school unleashes a storm of shame and recrimination throughout the small community. A chorus of voices—those of the men, women, and teenagers involved—details the events of that night and their aftermath.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve brings us a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellinglyexplores the impulses that drive ordinary people into intolerable dilemmas, or the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

Publishers Weekly

The large cast does justice to Shreve’s engrossing novel. For once, the high school students—including Brian Kennedy as Silas, Eve Bianco as Noelle, Joshua Swanson as Rob, and Jill Apple as Sienna—sound genuinely young. Ellen Archer teases out all the meaning and emotion she can from the relatively small part of Anna, Silas’s mother. Robert Petkoff is less persuasive as Mike, the headmaster of the school, Anna’s eventual lover, and a pivotal figure in the dramatic events that unfold at Avery Academy. He sounds dispassionate and factual, but Shreve makes it clear that Mike is egotistical and rash. Photos and credits of all the cast members on the last disk are a welcome bonus as most of the performers deserve attention after their riveting narratives and fine ensemble work. A Little, Brown hardcover (Reviews, Aug. 11). (Oct.)

A novelist who combines sweepingly romantic plots with a keen understanding of the emotional complexities inherent in any relationship, Anita Shreve is a writer who understands the subtleties of the human mind, and heart.