All For Now: A Novel

Brother Stephen dies suddenly. That’s when things get complicated. Is Stephen’s death his wake-up call? This possibility slowly dawns on him. Soon, though, he is behind the wheel of a Prius, driving through his afterlife, listening to himself being interviewed on NPR. It’s just like high school, Terry. You know, maybe it is high school, he tells her, in the interview, as she questions him about lawsuits filed by students who claimed to have been molested by pedophile Brothers. As an administrator of his Roman Catholic religious order, he was caught in the middle of these heartbreaking cases. In fact, the lawsuit he was dealing with the moment he died is one that strikes especially close to his heart. He once knew the plaintiff–he once knew her very well–but he also knew the Brother who is named in the lawsuit. Now that he’s dead, he’s more determined than ever to get to the truth. He spends his afterlife unraveling this terrible mystery, learning more about the plight of the survivor and that of the accused, but the biggest mystery he faces is one about himself.