The Sabbathday River - Jean Hanff Korelitz

Based on a real crime committed in Ireland, THE SABBATHDAY RIVER charts an ordinary woman's resilience and discovery in the midst of extraordinary circumstances, by one of the most powerful new writers to emerge in recent seasons.On a warm September morning in 1985, not far from the town of Goddard, New Hampshire, Naomi Ruth finds the drowned body of a newborn baby girl floating in the Sabbathday River. The community makes its own accusations. Heather Pratt, a young single mother notorious for her affair with a married man must be the prime suspect. When the District Attorney threatens to put Heather's daughter into foster care, Heather confesses and is charged with first-degree murder. Naomi, following Heather's directions, uncovers the body of a second infant - born on the same day as the first. Heather claims that this, her second child, was stillborn. Assuming that charges against Heather will now be dropped, to Naomi's amazement Heather is on trial - for double murder.Naomi, herself an outcast in the introverted world of Goddard, engages the help of Judith Friedman, a friend and a lawyer, to defend Heather. But when the truth at the heart of the case finally comes to light, it is Naomi who must confront how little she has truly understood her toen, her friend and herself.