Nothing Can Hurt You
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
BEST BOOKS OF SUMMER 2020 - PEOPLE MAGAZINE, VOGUE, CNN, REFINERY29, CRIMEREADS, and more
"Captivating, serpentine, and affecting." -Megan Abbott
"A gothic Olive Kitteridge mixed with Gillian Flynn . . . Masterful." -Vogue
"Fascinating." -Sarah Lyall, New York Times Book Review
"Gripping and tremendously searing." -Leslie Jamison
"Reinvents the thriller for a new generation." -Rebecca Godfrey
"Gone Girl for the new decade." -Vogue.com
"A beautifully crafted novel with a terrifying story to tell. I couldn't put it down." -Paul La Farge
Inspired by a true story, this haunting debut novel pieces together a chorus of voices to explore the aftermath of a college student's death.
On a cold day in 1997, student Sara Morgan was killed in the woods surrounding her liberal arts college in upstate New York. Her boyfriend, Blake Campbell, confessed, his plea of temporary insanity raising more questions than it answered.
In the wake of his acquittal, the case comes to haunt a strange and surprising network of community members, from the young woman who discovers Sara's body to the junior reporter who senses its connection to convicted local serial killer John Logan. Others are looking for retribution or explanation: Sara's half sister, stifled by her family's bereft silence about Blake, poses as a babysitter and seeks out her own form of justice, while the teenager Sara used to babysit starts writing to Logan in prison.
A propulsive, taut tale of voyeurism and obsession, Nothing Can Hurt You dares to examine gendered violence not as an anomaly, but as the very core of everyday life. Tracing the concentric circles of violence rippling out from Sara's murder, Nicola Maye Goldberg masterfully conducts an unforgettable chorus of disparate voices.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Goldberg's debut, a thoughtful meditation on gender-based violence, focuses on 12 people affected by the gruesome killing of 21-year-old Sara Rose Morgan, a college student who was murdered by her schizophrenic boyfriend, Blake Campbell, in 1997. Beginning with the philandering housewife in Upstate New York who discovered the body, the narrative passes from those who knew Sara to those familiar with Blake, who confessed to the crime, including Blake's future wife and a local reporter who followed Blake's trial and subsequent acquittal on the basis of insanity. A subplot about the trial of a serial killer, John Logan, touches on forgiveness, obsession, the lack of empathy for victims, and the glorification of mass murderers. Goldberg's razor-sharp, intricately constructed tale, with its varied voices, will leave few readers unmoved. Fans of literary thrillers will relish this incisive account of murder and its aftermath.
