John Burnham Schwartz introduced readers to two Connecticut families inextricably bound by tragedy in his breakout novel Reservation Road (1999). In this sequel, which stands brilliantly on its own, he revisits those characters 12 years later. In the earlier novel, Dwight Arno left the scene of a hit-and-run accident resulting in the death of Josh Learner, a 10-year-old classmate of his son, Sam. He was disbarred, went to prison, and after his release, left his wife Ruth and Sam and moved across the country to Santa Barbara.

Sam is now 22 and just a month away from his graduation from ­UConn when he gets in the middle of a bar fight after losing his final baseball game of the season. He drives his bat into his assailant’s stomach, sending him to the hospital. Sam flees to Santa Barbara, despite the years that have passed since he last saw his father—somehow sensing that only Dwight will understand his need to escape the shame and disgrace in which he is suddenly mired.

In Northwest Corner, Schwartz delicately explores this broken father-son relationship, and how Dwight and Sam begin to reach out to one another—awkwardly at first, then with increasing empathy for the guilt and self-hatred each has experienced. Male characters are Schwartz’s forte, but his perceptive portrayal of Dwight’s ex-wife Ruth is also unerring, as he paints her gradual realization that, though she has been Sam’s primary caregiver and confidante for the last 12 years, in crisis he is drawn to his father: his comrade in shame. And in chapters written in the voices of Josh Learner’s mother Grace and sister Emma, Schwartz subtly depicts the ripple effects of Josh’s death throughout each of their lives.

In short, finely honed chapters, Schwartz examines the state of mind of each of these wounded souls, drawing the reader into their fragile lives. This is a brilliant exposure of one modern family in moral crisis, a story that in some way touches each of us.

A postgame bar fight leaves college baseball player Sam on the run and wondering whether he and his estranged father share a violent streak or at least bad judgment. His father, Dwight, can never make up for the accident that took a boy's life or repair his career or the family he left 12 years ago. Instead, he is going through the motions of starting over after serving his prison sentence until the day Sam arrives on his doorstep unannounced and troubled. In his fifth novel (after The Commoner), Schwartz explores the lives of characters damaged by circumstances and bad decisions, so it is gratifying when they move beyond crippling self-recrimination and begin their lives again. He adds depth to the characters he introduced in Reservation Road. VERDICT A well-crafted selection, ideal for readers with a taste for moral ambiguity. Readers of Reservation Road will enjoy continuing the stories of these two families, linked by tragedy, while those who haven't yet discovered this powerful writer are in for a treat.—Gwen Vredevoogd, Marymount Univ., Arlington, VA

The literary tradition of the middle-class American male as a creaky vessel teetering on the verge of moral meltdown yet struggling to reconstruct himself has found its latest and arguably most adept practitioner in Schwartz (Reservation Road). Like Johnny Hake and Harry Angstrom before him, Dwight Arno is a man who has done wrong. A Connecticut tax lawyer disbarred after a fatal hit and run accident, he does not expect a chance at redemption, but it arrives in the form of his son, Sam, who makes a mad dash across the country and shows up at his estranged father's front door after a vicious bar fight puts an end to his dreams of baseball stardom. Pontificating discourses masquerading as stream-of-consciousness mar the narrative at times and inject a sanctimonious streak, but Schwartz is otherwise exceptional at describing the chemistry of desire, creating emotional tension, and making his characters feel more like flesh and blood than fictional constructs. Imaginative and taut, Schwartz's writing is seamless and infinitely inspired. (July)