The Holder family is in crisis. Hannah is sick of being a stay-at-home mom marooned in a rural college town, her teenage daughter, Madison, is the subject of anti-LBGTQ bullying, and her teenage son, Dillon, is failing at school and having run-ins with the law. Hannah wants out of a life that has grown toxic to her family and to reclaim the person she once was-a confident, professional woman. Her husband Tom, a philosophy professor, once supported her plea for change-a return to Boston that would give their kids a fresh start and her the chance to get her law degree-but now his life is unravelling as he struggles to fend off attacks on his career from the college president, reconcile with his estranged, cancer-stricken father and confront a dark, hidden past. Virtue exposes, through the Holder's journey that fateful year, the vulnerability and randomness of human existence, but also the power of redemption.
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[Why do bad things happen to good people?]***
(Roads End Books LLC, 4 August 2020, 236 pages, e-book, #ARC from (@mindbuckmedia and voluntarily reviewed)
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I'd never heard of the author before, but I liked the premise so decided to give it a shot. The cover of the book isn't the greatest, but I didn't let that put me off (never just a book by it's over and all that). I'm a big fan of novels that deal with families in crisis and current events. What can I say, I like people being human and a bit messed up? This is very contemporary and completely relevant. Tom is critical of Trump which causes difficulties with his job as a University Professor. I liked the way the chapters alternate between Tom and his wife Hannah gradually exploring the dynamics of their marriage and the reasons things aren't running so smoothly.