Oddly enough, my high-school guidance counselor never mentioned the word college in any of our meetings. Instead, I would be working the door at Molly's Pub, stealing glances at the game on the television above the bar as I inspected driver's licenses and tamped down drunken arguments-not my career of choice, but it paid the rent. Just one more thing I couldn't afford on my college-student budget. Soon the lights of Target Field would flood the western horizon of Minneapolis, shooting up into the night like rays of glory, but I would not be there to see it. My Minnesota Twins were scheduled to play the Cleveland Indians that cool September evening in a game to crown the central-division champion. But I will confess that there have been times when I think back to that day and wonder: if the fates had truly whispered in my ear-if I had known how that drive would change so many things-would I have taken a safer path? Would I turn left where before I had turned right? Or would I still travel the path that led me to Carl Iverson?

I've never been one to buy into such things. There are people in this world who would call that kind of feeling a premonition, a warning from some internal third eye that can see around the curve of time. I remember being pestered by a sense of dread as I walked to my car that day, pressed down by a wave of foreboding that swirled around my head and broke against the evening in small ripples.

Will Joe discover the truth before it’s too late to escape the fallout? Read more But as he and Lila dig deeper into the circumstances of the crime, the stakes grow higher. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl’s conviction. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory.

As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. Carl is a dying Vietnam veteran-and a convicted murderer. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. A USA Today bestseller and book club favorite!Ĭollege student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class.

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