A memoir of murder, family and law, but at a careful distance

The Washington Post, November 5, 2021: A memoir of murder, family and law, but at a careful distance

“‘The problem when life gets broken into before and after is that the edges of the two pieces are jagged and don’t fit back together,’ Blake writes in The Uninnocent, a poignant yet awkward blend of memoir and reflections on mercy, justice and heartbreak, all prompted by this one unfathomable act. The 2010 murder, for which Blake’s cousin received a life sentence without the possibility of parole, became a before-and-after moment for the author, launching her on a quest to understand what had happened and why, how the legal system had responded, and what justice, if possible, could look like. She knows she cannot put the pieces of these broken lives back together; instead, in this book, she runs her fingers gently over the shards.

Additional reading:

Katharine Blake’s The Uninnocent: Notes on Violence and Mercy on bookshop.org

True Justice: PW Talks with Katharine Blake, September 3, 2021

Harvard Bookstore, Tuesday, November 9 at 7pm ET: Virtual Event: Katharine Blake