Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | What Comes After | 2021 | JoAnne Tompkins | Buy |
JoAnne Tompkins’s standalone fiction consists of What Comes After, published in 2021. The novel centers on a Quaker man, a bereft mother, and a mysterious pregnant teenager in a small Pacific Northwest town, all connected by a tragedy involving two high school boys. Tompkins structures the story around the question of what comes after an act of violence that cannot be undone.
The book was well received by critics and readers who appreciate literary fiction that takes its time with difficult emotions. Tompkins’s experience as a mediator shows in her ability to write characters who are trying, often imperfectly, to understand each other.