The Amateur

'Sharply funny, beautifully told and so moving on the way life can upend itself in a single moment. I adored it’ CLARE LESLIE HALL, author of BROKEN COUNTRY

'Impossible to put down' GILLIAN McALLISTER, author of WRONG PLACE WRONG TIME

1978. In the sleepy New York suburb of Tallmadge, eighteen-year-old Mira Winston is beguiling, talented, and full of youthful recklessness. She spends her summer perfecting her swing at her parents’ country club – and continuing her long-running affair with her father’s golf buddy, a married man twice her age.

Then, one August afternoon, a freak accident occurs, and Mira’s classmate Kenny is killed. In the days and years that follow, the events of that day become inextricably tied to the choices she has made – with devastating, unpredictable consequences for her family, her neighbours and friends, and Mira herself.
She is forced to ask: what happens when one small moment – the swing of a golf club, a stolen kiss, a hastily written note – changes the course of an entire life?
Mesmerizing and darkly funny, The Amateur unravels against a backdrop of white-picket-fenced streets, university dorm rooms, smoke-filled restaurants, and elegant country clubs. Turning a sharp eye to the American middle class, it is a hypnotic tale of power, morality, and the weight of blame.