SIDEKICK

A husband and father loses his lower leg as a result of a tragic automobile accident in this novel.

Forty-one-year-old Jack Miller works as “a mechanical engineer in a small R & D company” in Woodfield, Connecticut. His spouse, Sasha, is described as “a take-charge mother and a wife in career mode” who works in the hospitality industry. Along with their two young children, George and Rose, the couple seem to lead a perfect life. But cracks begin to appear in their marriage, and Jack begins a short but steamy romance with Sandy, a realtor he is introduced to at his country club. Feeling a sudden pang of conscience, Jack visits Sandy to break off the affair and then leaves to pick up George and Rose in his SUV. Jack becomes distracted, and the vehicle careers off the road and into a lake. As the car fills with water, Jack attempts to save his children but finds that his mangled ankle is trapped in the wreckage. He regains consciousness in a hospital room, facing life as an amputee and the weight of his actions. During his darkest moments, Utah, an old friend, calls unexpectedly, and Jack’s life changes again. Barrett’s (I’ll Be Looking at the Moon, 2016) first novel was a story of resilience and second chances, and this new offering is thematically similar. As in her previous work, the author displays a talent for capturing the complexity of human connections. Describing the all-consuming nature of Jack’s affair, Barrett notes: “He had felt that when he was with her, he was inside an opaque microcosm from which he could not see beyond the space the two of them occupied.” Her writing is shrewd and analytical, meticulously mapping out Jack’s arduous psychological journey as the narrative progresses: “Only in his dreams was his sadness able to burst into his subconscious and plunder his brain to inflict its mortal wounds directly to his heart.” The author also accurately addresses the daily physical challenges faced by Jack as an amputee, such as the frustrations of putting on a pair of trousers when wearing a prosthesis. The story may appear unappealingly bleak to some readers, but Barrett provides slivers of hope throughout, resulting in a gut-wrenching but unexpectedly inspirational read.

A bracingly realistic tale that pivots on a moment of sheer terror.