Contemporary resonance: Concerned with inherited trauma, the relationship between historical atrocity and contemporary understandings of culture, identity, and selfhood, historical and personal memory, justice and reconciliation. Joins contemporary discussions regarding the extent to which war crimes should be prosecuted, the nature and reliability of memory, the meaning and human face of evil, the inevitability of loss and the persistence of hope. The book takes place to a large extent in Belarus, currently the subject of international attention as a result of its pro-democracy protest movement.
Editorial comps include All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky, Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels, Anil's Ghost by Michael Ondaatje, Bel Canto by Anne Patchett
Genre: multiple timelines, switching between present investigation and trial and Drozd's escape from Belarus. Appeal to readers of legal, historical, Jewish, and literary fiction.
McCormack: has been a Finalist for the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the Amazon First Novel Award, named to Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year. Backspring sold 648 copies in the US.