TESTIMONY: A NOVEL

Synopsis:

At a New Englandboarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape.

A Pandora's box of revelations, the tape triggers a chorus of voices--those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal--that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.

Writing with a pace and intensity surpassing even her own greatest work, Anita Shreve delivers in TESTIMONY a gripping emotional drama with the impact of a thriller. No one more compellingly explores the dark impulses that sway the lives of seeming innocents, the needs and fears that drive ordinary men and women into intolerable dilemmas, and the ways in which our best intentions can lead to our worst transgressions.

Review:

This book has a very controversial issue and when we start reading we are, definitely, left without knowing exactly what can come out of a book with a plot so bold.

In an elite school where appearances and reputation of the students are valued, for the repoutation of the School depends on theirs, an orgy occurs between Sienna a 14 years old girl and three young boys. Everything would have gone by as a mere sexual experience (although a bit extreme) would it not had been shot and taken to the Director and then have been disseminated via the Internet.

Young boys participating in the orgy with Sienna are held accountable despite claiming that she had provoked them, the case is considered sexual abuse of a minor by the other three youngsters are already mayors of age.

Thus a situation that could be an almost innocuous experience will not only cause a hurricane on the lives of young people who took part in it, but for their familes, as well as the small community they belong to.

The innovative in this book, beyond the daring of its theme, is the story is told by various points of view, not just for the young people involved but also their parents and part of the community. This constant change of perspective has contributed to the enrichment of the story, it allows us to understand the various sides of the story in a much broader and the disastrous consequences that will have the discovery of this orgy.

The book is extremely well written and is of great boldness and daring, giving the reader an addictive reading, which admits no long pauses.