Afterwards

Hal Costigan is the kind of man people envy. A candidate for Congress, he has a loving wife, a supportive family, a devoted mother.

He is a man on the rise--until he is caught in an affair with a high-school girl and commits suicide, leaving a family whose futures are irrevocably changed by his act.

His mother, sister, brother, and lover are haunted by his memory and cannot find consolation in each other.

In Afterwards , Gina Berriault charts the corrosive power of guilt and loneliness and shows us how one terrible act can bind and possess a family forever.

Hal O. Costigan, candidate for Congress, is the kind of man people envy.

He has a loving wife, a supportive family, a devoted mother.

Friendly, intelligent, successful, he is a man on the rise--until he is caught in an affair with a high school girl and commits suicide.

On election day the reporters have forgotten him, and the radio doesnt mention his name.

Around Hals hometown, however, a handful of people continue lives that will be forever haunted by his memory.

Mother, sister, brother, lover--their futures all irrevocably changed by his death--cannot find consolation in each other and seek it elsewhere. In Afterwards (previously published as Conference of Victims), Gina Berriault charts the corrosive power of guilt and loneliness, showing how one terrible act can possess a family.