Anita Shreve - Testimony

Review by Corinna Christopher on show 25th March
Anita Shreve has written many excellent books and her themes are reflected in assured and powerful writing. She lives in the States as are the background of her books and i am a great fan of hers.
Much of the setting is a New England boarding school presided over by Mike Bordin the headmaster. Three youngsters are caught up in a sex-scandal which unfortunately was filmed and due to the ease of computer networks is soon in the public domain. Up until then Silas, Rob and J.Dot were all promising students with an excellent future ahead of them. Because of one stupid and weak moment fuelled by an excess of alcohol their lives were devastated. To add to their misfortunes the girl Sienna was only 14 yrs old and although she was sexually advanced for her years this di not extenuate the crime.
We are told the students home life details and following their expulsion from the school, we are then gripped by the emotional dramas of each family, one ending in tragedy, partly caused by the fact that the headmaster has embarked upon an affair with Silas' mother.
Little is told about Sienna the story being mostly about repercussions for the three boys. This is a taut compelling book and a real page turner with believable characters and feelings. The message from this book is that it takes only a few minutes of foolishness to de-rail lives and expose human frailty.
Good book!
Review by Corinna