Our member Nancy Floerke writes:

Unlike most other books chosen by our book group, this book does not focus on Jewish characters.  It is the story of two siblings raised by parents who ran a school dedicated to the Rousseau’s theory of education – don’t instruct; just let the children explore and express themselves.   The story begins when the brother is charged with murder and the sister comes to prison to visit him.  While he is never officially labeled, the brother has significant learning and social deficits, making it difficult to determine his culpability.  The sister revisits the past to evaluate the roles both she and her parents played in her brother’s inability to successfully interact with the world.  The book is a quick and interesting read exploring a family’s responsibility to lovingly accept and guide a member who is not able to navigate the world on his own.