God Might Forgive Gershwin Burr

Book excerpt: Following the violent death of his father, Gershwin Burr descends into a seemingly inescapable depression until, not-so-accidentally, he discovers a remedy for his condition: he steals a book and finds his mood has lightened. Before long, he’s stealing indiscriminately while refining his skills as a professional thief and amassing a small fortune. Despite mounting pressure from his wife to go straight and from his own tortured conscience, he can’t find the desire or motivation to change. Uncertain about how to proceed, the matter is taken out of his hands when his secret is betrayed by someone whose identity is a mystery to him. Arrested, charged, convicted and jailed, his search for repentance and for the identity of the person responsible for his demise, leave him in a state of perpetual unrest. That is, until the final day of his sentence, when the answers he’s been seeking are at last revealed to him. Beautifully written and evocative, this novel contrasts the reverberations of trauma with long-held, often misguided, notions of who is, and is not, worthy of redemption.