Nineteen-year-old Iris Sunnaret and her three siblings live happily in a family that adopted them after their mother's death. Then history intervenes, in the form of the Vietnam War. Her two brothers die bravely in combat on the same day. But a man who served in their platoon appears on the family's doorstep months later, offering his version of what happened to the brothers. Iris decides to find out the truth, seeking out other witnesses, researching official records. The path she follows brings her into the Iroquois Nation, into the Italian neighborhoods of upstate New York towns, an into parts of her own past that she hadn't know existed. She uncovers secret after secret, unraveling the picture she once had about herself, her sister, and her supposedly idyllic family life.
Heartbreaking and redemptive, EVERYTHING AFTER is a classic drama about the forces that can change a family, and the clash of the personal, the moral, and the political on the wartime home front.
Praise for Everything After
“Pywell’s ability to nail the dynamics of a family in crisis make this an immersive, affecting read.”
— PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
“The author of the odd, haunting WHAT HAPPENED TO HENRY (2004) does even better in her powerful second novel about the inescapable consequences of war and lies.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS
“EVERYTHING AFTER is one of those books that pulls and tugs at you, nipping at the corner of your emotions. It’s seductive and sneaks up on you, adding layer upon layer.”
— DENVER POST
“A perceptive take on the generation that came of age during the late 60’s, this second novel, with its quietly beautiful, perfectly paced prose, centers on a family divided both physically and politically by the Vietnam War.”
— PEOPLE
“The best examination of political and moral issues within the framework of family life since Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres. Pywell has a gift for capturing the complexity of sibling relationships that is all her own.”
— KIRKUS REVIEWS