Apology

When nine-year-old Tom Serafino's twin sister, Teagan, suffers a debilitating brain injury, a police investigation implicates his playmate Mario's uncle, a transient immigrant worker known as Shoe. Innocent of the crime but burdened by his own childhood tragedy, Shoe takes the blame for the accident caused by his young nephew, ensuring Mario's chance at a future publicly unscarred.

Told in vivid scenes alive with imagery, this striking debut novel explores how the decisions we make in an instant reverberate for years to come. Can a lie born from resignation, fear, and love transform tragedy into hope? And is the life of one man worth the price of that lie?

Deeply empathetic and beautifully written, Apology offers a powerful vision of the measure of duty we have toward one another, and the extent to which abandoning the wreckage of family and the past often leads to unexpected consequences.

Jon Pineda is the author of a memoir, Sleep in Me, which was a Library Journal "Best Books of 2010" selection. His collections of poems include The Translator's Diary, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize from New Issues, and Birthmark, selected by Ralph Burns as winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series Open Competition. He teaches in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, and lives in Virginia with his family. Apology is his first novel.

"He would go to their house and tell them how it had happened, how he wished it had never happened. His entire life, it seemed, was hanging on this apology . . ."

When nine-year-old Tom Serafino's twin sister, Teagan, suffers a debilitating brain injury, a police investigation implicates his playmate Mario's uncle, a transient immigrant worker known as Shoe. Innocent of the crime but burdened by his own childhood tragedy, Shoe takes the blame for the accident caused by his young nephew, ensuring Mario's chance at a future publicly unscarred.

Told in vivid scenes alive with imagery, this striking debut novel explores how the decisions we make in an instant reverberate for years to come. Can a lie born from resignation, fear, and love transform tragedy into hope? And is the life of one man worth the price of that lie?

Deeply empathetic and beautifully written, Apology offers a powerful vision of the measure of duty we have toward one another, and the extent to which abandoning the wreckage of family and the past often leads to unexpected consequences.

Jon Pineda is the author of a memoir, Sleep in Me, which was a Library Journal "Best Books of 2010" selection. His collections of poems include The Translator's Diary, winner of the 2007 Green Rose Prize from New Issues, and Birthmark, selected by Ralph Burns as winner of the 2003 Crab Orchard Award Series Open Competition. He teaches in the MFA program at Queens University of Charlotte, and lives in Virginia with his family. Apology is his first novel.