A USA Today bestseller and book club favorite!
College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing
assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and
write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads
to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl
Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Carl is a
dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months
to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending
thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes
about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot
reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the
convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself
into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having
to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving
his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread
by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl's conviction. But as he and
Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow
higher. Will Joe discover the truth before it's too late to escape the
fallout?
