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Testimony: A Novel | 
| Author: Anita Shreve
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $13.45
You Save: $12.54 (48%)
New (51) Used (17) Collectible (4) from $12.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  40 reviews
Sales Rank: 327
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2
ISBN: 0316059862
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316059862
Publication Date: October 21, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand New!!! bce
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Product Description
At a New England boarding 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 compellinglyexplores 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 35 more reviews...
 Read anything else by Anita Shreve. December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Anita Shreve is one of my favorite authors. With great anticipation I waited for her new book. This story, however, is not even close to her best work. As you read, you come to realize that you are witnessing a tragedy without survivors. The story is told through the voices of 21 different individuals involved and the style is distracting. The description of the actual sex scandal is graphic and revolting. This book was a major dissapointment. Read anything else by Anita Shreve.
Tragic consequences November 30, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This novel is a poignant and rather disheartening story set in Avery, Vermont, mostly connected with matters related to the Avery Academy, a private school for high-school-age kids. It is a story of unintended consequences, but is it really possible to contain the fallout from a discovered affair of a headmaster and the mother of a basketball player or, even more significant to this story, from the posting on the Internet of a tape of a drunken orgy in a dorm room involving a prematurely experienced fourteen-year-old girl and three older boys from the basketball team.
The story opens with Mike Bordwin the headmaster watching the tape and knowing that many lives and the world of Avery Academy are about to be profoundly disrupted, if not destroyed. The author allows the story to unfold gradually through a series of chapters told from the perspective of the principals of the events as well as peripheral characters. Besides headmaster Mike, basketball player Silas Quinney, his girlfriend Noelle, and Silas' mother are most important to the story.
While the episode caught on tape was in clear violation of the law, the author's concerns are with how personalities, circumstances, and the various environments developed and interacted to lead to this scenario. The reader is drawn into the story as there are several places where there is a desire to reach out to the characters and advise them to take a different route, to make a different decision. Wouldn't we all like to do that with our lives - change a decision from years ago? But they, like us, have to live with what they have chosen, regardless of unpleasant results.
As might be expected the story gradually changes as more is revealed, as a perspective is contradicted by one more credible. The main characters are fairly well understandable by virtue of their thought processes and actions. The book is fairly easy to read, although the shifting around between characters and time frames is a little difficult to follow, but one can generally figure it out.
Testimony November 27, 2008
Have you ever wondered how far-reaching one action can be? Have you ever considered how many lives might be impacted by something you do? Testimony is a wonderful novel by Anita Shreve that explores these questions. A scandal at the prestigious Avery Academy, a New England high school boarding school, is revealed. But is everything as it seems? Ms Shreve discloses the secrets little by little, showing us the impact one action can have on so many. Shreve does this in an unusual way. Each chapter is narrated by a different person touched by the event. The shocking ending has a memorable impact on the reader.
Although this story is an interesting read, it is also somewhat predictable and very disturbing. To me, it seemed that the cascade of events was a bit exaggerated, bordering on the unrealistic. In addition, there were not many likable characters. Many seemed one-dimensional and empty.
 anita is back in full force!! November 27, 2008
i didnt think her last two books were that great, but this one im happy to say i couldnt put down....good or bad i always savor her books, im not that way with every author. I think the characters all came through with their own pain, and i liked them all. Look forward to her next one!!
 Too many perspectives November 26, 2008
It was an interesting and disturbing story. It reinforced the fear that is always in the back of a mother's mind that one mistake could ruin a person's life. Scary business. At times I found it hard to follow. It jumped so often between narrators and time periods. It could have been much more engaging from fewer perspectives. I found it hard to care deeply about any one character.
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