The Space Between

Winner of a 2007 American Book Award Valentine’s Day in middle America. Judith Elliott fixes breakfast for her affluent suburban family. She kisses them all goodbye, tends to the house, makes plans for later with her husband. Then comes the news: her teenage son, Lucas, has taken a gun to school. He has killed two other students, a teacher, and himself. Judith must suddenly grapple with extraordinary grief and horror. As reporters gather and lawsuits loom, society shuts out the surviving members of the Elliott family. Judith struggles to be the center of what remains of her family but finds herself plagued by doubts and unanswerable questions that may eventually disrupt her life more completely than the initial tragedy. Kali VanBaale’s award-winning first novel examines the aftermath of this modern nightmare with a clear-eyed dramatic precision that will leave readers wondering what does indeed lurk in the dark, unknowable spaces that exist between even the most loving of family members.