<b>Kitchen-sink crime drama meets tragic opera in William Boyle&rsquo;s most ambitious literary crime novel yet: the story of two sisters and their neighbor whose lives are shaped through one fateful, impulsive act</b><br><br>Gravesend, Brooklyn, 1986: Risa Franzone lives in a ground-floor apartment on Saint of the Narrows Street with her bad-seed husband, Saverio, and their eight-month-old baby, Fabrizio. Risa is a loving mother, a faithful wife, a saintly neighbor, as she has learned to be&mdash;but lately, her husband&rsquo;s slow dive into criminality and abuse has threatened her peace, raising concerns about her and her baby&rsquo;s safety. On the night her younger sister, Giulia, moves in with Risa to recover from a bad break-up, a fateful accident occurs: Risa, boiled over with anger and fear, strikes a drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot.<br><br>The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for self-defense, or bury the man&rsquo;s body and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, in the late hours of the night, they call upon Sav&rsquo;s childhood friend&mdash;the sweet, loyal Christopher &ldquo;Chooch&rdquo; Gardini&mdash;to help them, hoping they can trust him to carry a secret like this.<br><br>Over the vast, dramatic expanse of the next eighteen years, life goes on in the working-class Italian neighborhood of Gravesend as Risa, Giulia, and Chooch grapple with the choice they make that night&mdash;and respond differently when the cracks of a supposedly seamless cover-up begin to reveal themselves.