Early Leaving - by Judy Goldman (Paperback)

About the Book

From the critically acclaimed author of "The Slow Way Back" comes this piercingly honest, stunning portrait of a mother whose overwhelming love has dark repercussions for her only child.

From the Back Cover

A mother wakes one morning to find the police at her door to arrest her only child-a star athlete and honor student-for murder.

The Smallwoods are one of those families who project a rosy image, exactly what we all hoped and imagined our lives would be. Peter Smallwood is a patent attorney with the oldest firm in town. Kathryne is president of parents' council at the private high school their son, Early, attends. She is an over-involved mother; Peter is under-involved. She's excessive when she should hold back; he's stingy when fullness is needed. Kathryne is so protective of their son, so overbearing, that the only way out for him is to disappoint her in a profound way. The novel opens the night before his sentencing. It covers the next thirteen months and flashes back to family memories Kathryne has told again and again through the years, trotting them out like scrubbed children-as well as the memories she would just as soon forget.

EARLY LEAVING is Kathryne's story. She probes the pieces of the past to see if she should have seen the end coming. Was there any point where she might have come between her son and what lay in wait for him? Or was it just the randomness of fate and its consequences? Was she the cause? All she ever wanted was to keep him safe and happy. Isn't that what every mother wants?

Review Quotes

"A mother goes to great lengths to defend her son in this sentimental domestic tale with a racial spin." - Publishers Weekly
"Goldman's brutally honest dramatization of a dysfunctional family makes provocative reading." - Booklist
"Early Leaving is a delicate portrait of self-deception." - Star News (Wilmington, N.C.)
"It's Early Leavings' themes, rather than simply its plot, that make it a page-turning read." - Lexington Herald-Leader
"Early Leaving is a disturbing book about a teenager who is given every advantage but still goes horribly wrong." - Detroit Free Press
"Haunting questions of parenthood ripple through the pages of this thoughtful second novel." - Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"As in her first novel, The Slow Way Back, Goldman displays a keen eye here for the character-defining detail." - Washington Post
"Every mother should read . . . Judy Goldman's new novel, Early Leaving . . . this tale is a nightmare-come-true, a riveting story of how the best paternal intentions can go horribly, horribly awry. . . . Goldman's prose is rich and so descriptive. . . . Not only does Goldman use language nicely, she slices open the heart of family relationships with the skill of a surgeon. Each character is fully developed, and the anguish the family suffers is palpable. This is one book worth reading." - Winston-Salem Journal
"Every mother should read Judy Goldman's new novel, Early Leaving." - Winston-Salem Journal
"Early Leaving is one of those novels you know you¹ll remember forever--the wisdom, the compassion, the absolutely brilliant portrait of motherhood. Judy Goldman has painted every parent's worst nightmare, illuminating denial and everyday mistakes in a way that makes the reader shudder with recognition. Moving, heartbreaking and ultimately a testament to hope and survival, Early Leaving is an extraordinary novel." - Jill McCorkle
"We've all wondered just how well we know our children-or if we paint them in our minds with broad strokes to see them as the people we want them to be. Early Leaving is a sensitive, beautifully crafted story of one mother's abrupt awakening to the truth that our relationships are never what they seem to be-not even the ones in which we take part." - Jodi Picoult