The Believers.

Heller, Zoe (author).

After her success with What Was She Thinking? (the 2003 novel that was made into the 2006 film Notes on a Scandal), Heller tells another story of troubled individuals and dysfunctional families. Radical lawyer and activist Joel Livitinoff is felled by a stroke-induced coma. His wife, Audrey, and three grown children rally to his side, negotiating multiple forms of strife: drug addiction, marital unhappiness, and a struggle to find religion. When Audrey uncovers a devastating secret about her husband, the family must contend with the fallout and, hopefully, resolve their own turbulent relationships. Heller brilliantly balances the lives of her characters, each brimming with contemptuous emotions and personal defeats, with the drama of a family unraveling at its center. At moments, the novel wells up with the sensations of a grieving wife or embodies the anger only a child can feel toward a critical parent, but The Believers also captures those frozen-in-time moments that create a family, for better or for worse.