The Half-Life of Guilt - by Lynn Stegner (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

A tour de force work of fiction with interweaving themes of environmentalism, past trauma, and redemption. Here is a novel that explores the manner in which Clair and Mason take on guilt where none is warranted and its lasting impact on how they navigate their lives.

Lynn Stegner's acclaimed novels and story collections have drawn comparisons to the works of Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro, and John Updike. Now in her new novel, The Half-Life of Guilt, Stegner tells the story of Clair Bugato and Mason Comstock. Together they journey to the world's largest saltworks in Baja California, where a proposed expansion threatens the California gray whale population, recently come back from the brink of extinction.

In the midst of a conservation battle, they meet a mysterious son of Mexico, Rubio Cantú, who leads them to the powers that be. Their two-week journey sends Clair deep into the past, where she reviews the divergent paths she and her near-identical twin sister have taken away from a childhood tragedy. At the same time, Mason confronts his own unhappy past in Cornwall, England, with a father whose hate was stronger than his love.

No other work of fiction patterns the warp and weft of human guilt, the homesickness only love can cure, environmental crises, the intrinsic conflict between international commerce and planetary health, and the necessity of forgiveness. The Half-Life of Guilt is woven from these themes, delivering to the reader an engrossing and transformative literary experience.

Review Quotes

"The Half-Life of Guilt is a powerful tale of family loyalty, romantic love, and the long reach of a single, shocking childhood tragedy. Lynn Stegner has a profound understanding of how sisters relate--or fail to relate--and how the truth of the past can be lost to our misperceptions. This sobering and insightful story is beautifully told."--Elizabeth Crook, author of The Madstone and The Which Way Tree

A PopMatters Best Book of 2024

"As Stegner explores both personal responsibility and our responsibility to care for the natural world, she illuminates the ways we love, fail to love, and repair our failures. Her unique sensibility makes for a fascinating read."--Andrea Barrett, author of Natural History and Ship Fever

"In this beautiful and layered novel Lynn Stegner takes us on a passionate tour of self-discovery and family history written so closely and with such astonishing sincerity that the entire novel becomes a kind of surprising tenderness. Stegner has the writer's gift of creating a dear victory from the uneasiness of pristine places. This is a rich, rich book."--Ron Carlson, author of Return to Oakpine

"Lynn Stegner is a beautiful writer. This fiercely wrought family saga will take your breath away with its sharpness and depth."--Rick Bass, author of For a Little While: New and Selected Stories

About the Author

Lynn Stegner's books include the novels Undertow, Fata Morgana, and Because a Fire Was in My Head, which won the Faulkner Award for Best Novel and was a New York Times Editors' Choice. Her novella triptych, Pipers at the Gates of Dawn, was awarded a Faulkner Society's Gold Medal. She divides her time between San Francisco and northern Vermont.