The Sweet Hereafter

Russell Banks's The Sweet Hereafter is a short novel about a small working-class town in upstate New York that is upended when a school bus accident leads to the death of fourteen children. The tragedy devastates the community and comprehensively alters the lives of the surviving families; some decide to leave altogether, others turn to drugs or alcohol, and many look for someone to blame (feelings that are indulged and amplified when a New York City attorney gets involved). Despite some predictable plot features and simplistic characters, this is a very good and very realistic portrait of a small-town American tragedy.